Why in baseball the optimal angle for a home run is a lot less than 45 degrees?
In high school physics (okay, this is no longer 5 year old level) to throw something to the most distant, you throw it at 45 degrees.
But why in baseball the optimal angle for hitting a home run is a lot less than what is taught in physics?
I kind of understand it has to do with air resistance, but why does air resistance change the angle by that much?
In: Physics
1 is correct. 2 is irrelevant with respect to angle, and 3 assumes there is no resistance due to air. I don’t really understand what you are trying to say about the initial speed of the ball, but there is an initial speed moments after the ball bounces off the bat.
The optimal launch angle of a projectile in atmosphere is based on many things, including drag, stability in flight, direction of spin, and momentum.
In short, a 45 deg angle for a baseball will result in a ball that runs out of forward momentum before it hits the ground, so you can get additional range by reducing the launch angle so that you balance height over the wall with loss of forward momentum.
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