Reaction Times

[Killer Rabbit]

Trick question. Obviously, since the size of your brain is larger than mine, it would be in the hitting zone longer. Thus I would say that your reaction time to answer ANY question would be quicker than mine. Always.

[SSdad]

For example, you could soft toss a wiffle ball from one foot away and probably get a similar reaction time but a 7 year old could still hit it. On the other end, a cannon ball fired from whatever distance that would bring the reaction time to .3977 (borrowed analogy) would be impossible to track or hit.

well stated. A cannonball from 550' fired at 900mph would offer the same reaction time as a 90mph pitch released from 55 feet. Good luck hitting the cannonball, though.


One interesting point, raised on a recent Mythbusters episode, is that the impact pressure of a softball is greater than a baseball. The criteria was Finch throwing at 70 vs some college kid throwing a baseball at 90, so that wasn't quite right - 70 vs. maybe 97-98 would be more fair. But interesting nonetheless, and not unexpected when a baseball is just over 5 ozs, and a softball is over 7 ozs.

According to Mythbusters, this PROVED that hitting the softball was more difficult.

They lost me there. With a wood bat, this MIGHT be a factor. With a composite or double-walled bat, it seems to me that you WANT as violent a collision (as much pressure created) as posisble, because of the bat's trampoline effect. Probably HELPS performance.

And the test ignored the closing speed argument put forth by Gone in 2.xx, as well as the fact that the softball quite simply does not break as sharply as a baseball thrown by an elite pitcher.

That said, succeeding as a hitter in either environment is PLENTY tough, and the people who do deserve a LOT of respect.

um...didn't Finch break the plexiglass on her first pitch? Not much of a dataset gathered....

[ssarge]

However, a fastpitch batter is swinging at a larger ball,

Obviously true, but her bat is also smaller in diameter. I always thought that made it pretty much a wash in this area.

[Tumblebug]

hmmmmm, do you walk to work or take you lunch? . . . This sounds like one of the word problems in beginning algebra.

There are several things missing in the math I've seen. One glaring omission is the time it takes to get the bat to contact because the reaction has to happen before that starts and the execution of the swing happens while the ball is in flight. There are four numbers that are significant; the time it takes to recognize, decide, react and execute. Assuming you are combining the time to recognize, decide, and react as your total measurable reaction time, you have to subtract the time it takes to execute the swing trom the elapsed time of flight to get to the time available to "react."

Do you really want to see the math? It would probably be easier to illustrate this with a graph.

[anonlooker]

This is somewhat related to the topic (I think), but since a ball decelerates after leaving the pitcher's hand, when the pitch is clocked with a gun, what speed does the gun measure, and where in the trajectory? Or is it inconsequential?

[Tumblebug]

This is somewhat related to the topic (I think), but since a ball decelerates after leaving the pitcher's hand, when the pitch is clocked with a gun, what speed does the gun measure, and where in the trajectory? Or is it inconsequential?

That depends on the technology used in the gun.

The radar technology is based on the doppler shift and the speed is the difference between the transmit frequency and receiver frequency. The speed displayed is the highest number recieved in a particular cycle. The shorter the cycle the more readings you would get and you could actually measure deceleration. The typical cycle of the common radar gun is longer than the elapsed time of a pitch so the measure of a pitch is within the first foot after release.

The laser gun measures the round-trip time for light to reach an object and reflect back. light being faster than sound makes a laser gun more accurate.

[seniorsbfart]

The show is question had a baseball player attempting to hit a softball. A few years ago a group of science students at UW did a study on this issue. They had some baseball players try to hit a college level softball pitcher. At first the players missed the ball 90% of the time. However after a week of practice the baseball players adjusted and hit as good even not better than the softball players. So we can ask this question: what is harder to hit on a professional level – a pro softball pitcher or a pro baseball pitcher. The answer is without question that hitting a pro baseball pitcher is one if not the most difficult skills in sports.

[Tumblebug]

For example, you could soft toss a wiffle ball from one foot away and probably get a similar reaction time but a 7 year old could still hit it. On the other end, a cannon ball fired from whatever distance that would bring the reaction time to .3977 (borrowed analogy) would be impossible to track or hit.

well stated. A cannonball from 550' fired at 900mph would offer the same reaction time as a 90mph pitch released from 55 feet. Good luck hitting the cannonball, though.


One interesting point, raised on a recent Mythbusters episode, is that the impact pressure of a softball is greater than a baseball. The criteria was Finch throwing at 70 vs some college kid throwing a baseball at 90, so that wasn't quite right - 70 vs. maybe 97-98 would be more fair. But interesting nonetheless, and not unexpected when a baseball is just over 5 ozs, and a softball is over 7 ozs.

According to Mythbusters, this PROVED that hitting the softball was more difficult.

They lost me there. With a wood bat, this MIGHT be a factor. With a composite or double-walled bat, it seems to me that you WANT as violent a collision (as much pressure created) as posisble, because of the bat's trampoline effect. Probably HELPS performance.

And the test ignored the closing speed argument put forth by Gone in 2.xx, as well as the fact that the softball quite simply does not break as sharply as a baseball thrown by an elite pitcher.

That said, succeeding as a hitter in either environment is PLENTY tough, and the people who do deserve a LOT of respect.

Neither a bat nor a ball is a trampoline.

[Crabby_Bob]

[...]
The radar technology is based on the doppler shift and the speed is the difference between the transmit frequency and receiver frequency. [...]

The laser gun measures the round-trip time for light to reach an object and reflect back. light being faster than sound makes a laser gun more accurate.

I'm not sure what sound has to do with anything here. Radar uses electromagnetic radiation in the radio frequency range. Round-trip time will give me the range to the object and frequency shift will give me the speed component in the direction of the (radar, lidar, ladar) gun. If I do sequential range measurements, I can also derive the approach speed. Lidar, I thought, would enable discrimination between the Porsche Boxster and the huge truck behind it.

[Tumblebug]

Did you leave off an emoticon to show you were joking? No one said they were trampolines but the effect is well known in stick and ball collisions.
http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bat ... bat-0.html
The USGA has specifically banned any deliberate "springiness" in the clubface design and material.
http://www.leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_TRAMPOLINEEFFECT

The "Trampoline Effect" term was coined well before Dan Russell used it in his writing and in reality is an oversimplification marketed by bat manufacturers to give them something technical to talk about that a layman can understand so they could sell their "new" technology. Simalarly and for the same marketing reasons they drop weight myth was born. I think they underestimate the intellegence of their market.

Dan Russell is careful in his writing to to distinguish that it is called a "Trampoline Effect" and not that it is a trampoline or that it emulates the response of a trampoline. It should be called the "Two Spring Effect" but that is not quite as catchy and requires a little more effort to explain.