A pitcher stands less than 20 meters from the batter, and throws the ball at speeds of around 40 meters/sec. In that time the ball drops from its "straight line" path by about 1.2 meters.
Because of the stitches on the baseball there is considerable turbulence affecting its motion, and it may behave somewhat erratically. The complications in the motion of the ball arise from the Prandtl Layer of air that moves with the baseball, and which has a dominating effect on the motion of the ball.
The pitcher may put considerable spin on the baseball, corresponding to about 20 revolutions over its path.
A batter has about 0.5 seconds to gauge the path of a pitch, and the bat must be at the right place [within about 1 cm] at the right time [within 0.01 seconds] to make solid contact.
The bat-ball collision lasts typically for 0.001 seconds, and the average force on this ball is of order 10,000 Newtons, corresponding to a mass of about 1000 kg [or a ton].
Taking this into consideration if a batter manages to make contact with s baseball that is pitched between 30-45 m/s has the potential to leave the bat at a speed of 60 m/s spinning up to 3000 rpm and can return to the mound in 0.45 sec.
If the baseball traveling at a potential speed of 45 m/s contacts a stationary object i.e. a camera some of the kinetic energy is transferred to the stationary object. Kinetic energy is equal to ½ m v 2. The transfer of energy in this case will be equal to 1/2 the ball's mass multiplied by the square of it's velocity.
The amount of potential damage that a camera would incur if impacted by a by a baseball is incalculable as there are too many variables to account for. Therefore attempting to capture an image such as this could be considered by some to be gutsy...
Hopefully this explanation will appease the mod who told me I needed to add a description. :-D (5 years and 2827 days ago)
Yes Sir, this one is true to the topic's spirit! Well done, author, and I just hope that the shot missed you!
Author... if you dont mind.. can you be more specific. We may not be clear as to the potential danger here.
That's a really detailed description! I think it would have been enough to say that the ball would have broken something if it hit you though :p
@mod: haha..
Howdie stranger!
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