what is the physics of a fastball?
914731
NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio has a cool, online simulation of a baseball at:\nhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/foil2b.html\n\nYou can throw several types of pitches in locations as wierd as Mt. Everest, Mars, or in Cleveland.\n\nIf you have trouble doing it online, you can download the Java application.\n\nThe purpose of the demo is to increase understanding of the physics of baseball...\n\nHope this helps!
1042836
Instead of holding the ball with the regular fastball grip you turn it to a two seam fast ball grip and rotate it a litlle so you are only holding one of the seams. This will give you a fastball that will explode down and in towards a RH batter if you are a RH pitcher and opposite if you are a lefty.
1093407
You throw the sinker pretty much like a fast ball. It is mostly a modified two seem fastball. Take your two seemer grip, then move your pointer and middle fingers closer together. They should now be between the seems (fingers on seems takes away the sinking action). Offset your thumb from the 6 o;clock position to about 7 or 8 o'clock. \n\nWhen you throw, this grip will make you, without trying, "turn the ball over". From a righthander, the ball will have a little clockwise and "top" spin to it. The ball will TEND to move in and down to a righthanded batter.\n\nMove your thumb the other way and you will be throwing a "cutter". A cutter is a fastball that acts like a slider (without as much movement and sinking action) but has almost the velocity of the two seem fastball.\n\nThe regular two seem fastball will tend to tail into a right handed batter from a righthanded pitcher.\n\nAnother way to throw the sinker is to widen your pointer a middle finger a bit from the two seem fastball. Now they will be outside the laces of the "sweet" spot on the baseball. Thumb stays in the same position as a regular two seem fastball. This pitch will tend to break straight down late. You will loose velocity (compared to the two seem fastball) but pick up movement down. With a little pressure from either finger, you will find the ball tailing one way or another. Some call this a sinker, others call it a split fingered fastball. Neither term is completely accurate but both suffice.\n\nIf you have large hands and widen the split in your fingers so that the ball rests on the web between those fingers, you will be throwing a fork ball. That pitch breaks down hard and is fairly slow. It actually works like a poor knuckle ball but at a higher velocity. \n\nAgain, you need a coach right there with you that knows what he/she is doing. You should also not be trying to throw these pitches until you are at least 13 and more like 16. Some people say that widening your fingers on a ball can hurt your arm. I say it depends on the size of your hands and length of your fingers. Be safe with it.
135097
Ask the magic 8-ball\n\nhttp://www.indra.com/8ball/
426540
A ball is made up of a large number of particles, say 10^24.\nWhen one measures the speed and position of the ball, one measures the *average* speed and *average* position of all these particles. This is not in contradiction with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which states only that it is impossible to measure velocity and position of the same, given particle.
990982
Baseball, also know as "hardball" is where the game is played with a smaller ball, and the pitcher throws the ball overhand.  The second difference, and ofter forgotten, is that the base runners can leave the base to steal at any time they choose.  Also, "leading off", or standing off the base is allowed.\n\nSoftball uses a ball with a larger diameter, and the pitcher throws the ball underhand.  \n\nThere are 2 types of pitching styles allowed in softball.  First, "Fastpitch" softball allows the pitcher to wind their arm over up and over their head and pitch the ball in straight line.  Speed is the focus on pitching.  The strike zone is the same in baseball, which is throwing the ball over the plate, above the batters knees, and below their elbows.  As for base running, the runner must stand on the bag until the pitcher releases the ball towards home plate.\n\nThe second is "Slowpitch", where the pitcher throws the ball underhand,  up in the air towards the batter, and must reach an arc between 9 to 12 feet.  Different then "fast pitch", a strike is called when the ball "falls" and hits the plate, and a 1 foot extension on the back of the plate.  \n\nFor base-running in "slowpitch", a runner can not leave their base until  the ball crosses the plate.\n\nLastly, in Professional Baseball, you have 9 innings.  In Softball, you only have 7 innings.\n\nI also think in baseball you can do a lot more spitting :)
201479
When you throw a ball in the air it gradually gets slower until it starts falling back towards the Earth.  The faster you throw it the higher it goes.\n\nImagine now if you throw the ball fast enough that the Earth's gravity will not be able to slow it down enough before it escapes into deep space (outside our solar system).\n\nThis speed is the escape speed or escape velocity.\n\n---------------------------------------------------------\n\nMore accurately when you through a ball in the air you give it a certain amount of kinetic energy, as it gets higher this kinetic energy is being converted into gravitational potential energy (gravitiational potential energy is greater the higher you are).  The escape velocity is the velocity at which it has enough kinetic energy that you would have to take it an infinite distance away from Earth before it was all converted into gravitational potential energy.
958811
You physics types ALWAYS have to delete something, eh? Like mass, or air resistance or friction! lol\n\nAnyway, I think the ball would be a) either moving forward or stationary, depending on the wagon's rate of acceleration, relative to the ground, and b) rolling backward (due to inertia), relative to the wagon.
14021
The ball would bounce higher if the container kept a vacuum in it the entire time.  The first thing to understand is that there will not be pressure on top of the ball, there will be pretty much equal pressure around the ball from all sides; the air will spread evenly throught the container very rapidly.\n\nThis air will create drag, which will slow the descent of the ball and reduce the kinetic energy and momentum of the ball.  Drag and friction are called non-conservative forces, because when kinteic energy is lost to them, it is not transferred to another object, rather it is gone and not retrievable.  (It actually does get transferred, because no energy can truly be destroyed, but it is not retrieable.)\n\nSo what we have so far is a ball that is falling through dense air (greater pressure of a gas means a greater density of the gas), which is putting drag on the ball.  This means the ball does not fall as fast as it would in a vacuum, and the faster a rubber ball falls.  We then suck all the air out instantly, and the ball will bounce back up unrestricted by drag on its way up, but it would have bounced higher if it was not slwoed down by air during its fall and had a higher impact speed.
20702
a real easy way to alter a pitch is to remove some (or most) of your fingers from the ball when you throw it. Your arm speed will make it look like a fastball but because the ball is in your palm (rather than being gripped tightly by your fingers), it will go slowly.
929319
32 feet per second per second.  The acceleration is constant while the ball is in the air.  It is determined by the force of gravity.  The ball's speed will vary, but acceleration is constant.
1093247
Cut fastballs, when thrown by a right handed pitcher, will move to the left if you are looking behing the pitcher. Vice versa for a left handed pitcher. The pitch comes in hard and straight until about 2 feet away from the hitter then it "cuts" sharply to the left moving only a few inches. Mariano Rivera has the best cut fastball in the game. He throws it almost all the time and runs it in on the hands of left handed hitters and away from the rightys. It works best when up on the zone so you can "saw" hitters off, have them hit the ball on the handle of the bat and not the barrel, which will cause the bat to break, sawing them off.\n\nA "regular" fastball, is a 4 seams fastball and generally is the straightest of any pitch, it should also be the hardest ptich a pitcher can throw. When guys like Bobby Jenks and Brad Lidge throw their fastballs at 100 mph, they are using a 4 seam.
819878
Official MLB description:\n"The ball shall be a sphere formed by yarn wound around a small core of cork, rubber or similar material, covered with two stripes of white horsehide or cowhide, tightly stitched together. It shall weigh not less than five nor more than 5 1/4 ounces avoirdupois and measure not less than nine nor more than 9 1/4 inches in circumference."\n\nActual construction of the ball:\n"The cork nucleus, enclosed in rubber, is wound with 121 yards of blue-gray wool yarn, 45 yards of white wool yarn, and 150 yards of fine cotton yarn.  Core and winding are enclosed by rubber cement and a two piece cowhide cover hand-stitched with just 216 raised red cotton stitches."
752814
is the scoring player 'dragging' the 73 newton defender? then the defender is a frictional load NOT a horizontal load\nALSO remeber what is dynamic and what is static?\nWhich is acceleration and which is velocity\nThat always give me the hardest part of these questions
449968
Energy!  A straight ball hitting the head pin, just slightly off center so as to get the best chance at a strike, has the largest resistant force to travel thru to complete the task.  By putting spin on the ball, you are adding you arm energy(the straight forward energy) alonge with the additional energy of the spin, which by the way is adding speed to the ball.  If you watch a ball go down the lane, the ball actually picks up speed right at the end of the lane.  And by striking the pins from the side, or angle, the pins scatter more destructively taking out other pins.  It is physics!  Next time you watch a bowling tourney on TV, watch the balls' speed and spin, from release to contact.  Conservation of energy.  Converting/transferring one energy/force to another.
961895
I can attempt to help with a few of them.\ninertia - the tendency of an object to remain in its state of motion until acted upon by some external force.  Well, the luge is just gonna sit there unless the guy gets it moving to the slope where gravity can start it going down the run.  As it is going down the run, it wants to keep moving until something stops it or turns it.  Momentum is also close to this.  Momentum is a product of an object's mass and inertia.  If I were to throw a baseball at you and tell you to change it's direction with a bat, you would have no trouble.  If I were to drive at you in my car and tell you to change the car's velocity with the same bat, you couldn't.  The car having moremass, has more momentum.  However, if I were to lob a ball at you and tell you to change the momentum with your bare hand, you could.  Now, if Nolan Ryan threw that same baseball at you at over 120mph and you had to use just your bare hand to change the ball's velocity, you probaly could, but it'd sure hurt.  The increase in speed increased the ball's momentum.\nterminal velocity - absolutely maximum velocity an object can achieve relative to the environment it's moving through and forces that environment exerts upon the object factoring in object's mass\nmotion - movement\nWhen it crests a hill in the track  and comes back down the other side, if the luge's velocity is adequate, the rider may experience a feeling of free fall.  The space shuttle does this when in orbit.  It is falling to the ground all the time.  But, it also has a "forward" instead of just "downward" velocity letting it arc out over the curavature of the earth and fall into nothing.  Velocity is a combination of an object's speed AND direction.\nThere really is not enough room in this forum to fully explain all these aspects of your question.  Try looking through your physics book at the definition of those terms to see what each could be talking about during a luge run.
756287
Yes, Kaplan is correct.  While the ball is being thrown it is accelerating (not necessarily at 15 m/s2) up to a velocity of 15 m/s.  Once the ball is released the only force acting on it is gravity at -9.8 m/s2.