In physics in high school, we learned about forces, and how you need more force to send an object traveling the other way faster. So why can baseball players hit fastballs farther than baseballs on a tee?
In: Physics
Because in an impact the momentum of both object is taken in consideration.
Momentum can be considered mass x speed.
So when you are hitting a ball on a tee the force is solely generated by the force you put behind the swing.
When you are hitting a ball that is speeding towards you, the ball already has some momentum. When you hit it you are going to redirect that momentum, minus some losses in deformation and heat, plus the whole energy you bring with the swing. So in effect, it goes farther
They really don’t.
Fastballs are thrown with backspin, so the batter needs to hit the ball right to get it to carry a great distance.
The problem most batters face with slower pitches is the movement on the ball. It’s hard to make a square swing on them.
When you see a breaking ball that gets hung over the plate, they typically travel much further than an equal swing on a 90+mph fastball.
As for the difference between a pitch and a tee, it’s because baseballs are partially elastic and so is the collision. When you hit a pitch, not only is the force from the bat and batter being transferred into the ball, if you are able to overcome the balls momentum, the elasticity will transfer some of the balls own energy back in to it.
Baseballs are quite elastic. (You can see in slow motion videos of them being hit that they deform a lot when they hit something.) So they would bounce off even a flat wall, retaining and redirecting some of the energy they were thrown with. The faster the ball and the bat are moving, the more energy gets stored up as deformation, and then released to send the ball away.
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