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
The ball is pitched horizontally, and the swing of the bat is mostly horizontal. It’s easy to put a lot of horizontal speed into the ball by bouncing it off the front of the moving bat.
To get the ball to leave the bat at 45 degrees, you have to either swing the bat in a more upward direction, which sacrifices body mechanics and makes the ball harder to hit, or glance the ball off the top of the bat which imparts less speed to it.
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