When a bat is broken mid-swing during an MLB game, what is the bigger cause behind the break, the velocity of the pitch, or the force behind the batter’s swing?

Question

When a bat is broken mid-swing during an MLB game, what is the bigger cause behind the break, the velocity of the pitch, or the force behind the batter’s swing?

In: Physics

Answer 1

They work together to do it. Both objects experience the same force (Newton’s third law) during the collision. But we could determine which one brings more energy to the event.

A baseball is 0.15kg and is going 40 m/s. That’s 120 joules of kinetic energy.

The bat is much larger at 1 kg. It’s traveling roughly 30 m/s. That brings about 450 j of energy.

So the bat contributes the majority of the energy and an argument could be made that it is the more significant “cause”