From: Marc Afifi (marc_afifi@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Apr 15 2001 - 09:57:00 PDT
Message-ID: <20010415165700.85432.qmail@web13401.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 09:57:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Marc Afifi <marc_afifi@yahoo.com> Subject: Crew Cow and Physics
Hi Dan,
You're probably not going to like my answer but that's
never stopped me before, so here goes.
There are many reasons to despise the broadcasting
practices of Mike Spew Cow, but this is not one of
them.
Let's start with a different thought experiment. Your
car, traveling at 30mph hits a brick wall and comes to
rest. The damage done is significant, so you get it
repaired and then, unluckily, on your way home from
the body shop you collide head on with another car
also traveling at 30mph. In which collision is the
damage to your car more significant? Of course, in the
head on collision.
In our baseball experiment, the damage done to the
ball is more significant when the ball is also moving
than it is when the ball is on a tee. This damage is
done in deforming the ball during the collision. Have
you ever seen a ball after it has been smashed? One
side is clearly flatter than the other implying a
greater force during collsion.
Imagine what would happen if this machine of yours was
capable of throwing the bat at the ball. In this case
the bat's speed would clearly be the determining
factor in how far the ball on the tee flies. But the
bat would slow down in the process and would not fly
as far as if it had merely been thrown by the machine.
Now if the ball also has some momentum but in the
opposite direction of the bat when the collision
occurs, then the change in momentum of the bat would
be greater and it (the bat) would fly shorter still.
In fact, in this experiment, we could imagine a speed
of the ball such that the ball had exactly equal and
opposite momentum to the bat. What would happen in the
collision then? Since the total momentum before the
collision is zero, then the total momentum after the
collision must also be zero and the ball and bat would
simply fall to the ground. You've probably witnessed
this phenomenon if you've ever played pool and seen
two billiard balls collide and come to a stop.
So what about Spew Cow's comments? Well, clearly the
bat is not being thrown at the ball. Rather the batter
is continuing to apply force to the bat during the
collision. So, if the batter is able to maintain his
batspeed through the collision then the speed of the
ball prior to the collision will determine how far the
ball flies. Assuming that the added force of the
swinging batter will always counteract some of the
loss of momentum of the bat during the collision, the
ball will always fly farther if the ball is moving
faster.
Note, the guys who hit the ball the farthest are the
strongest guys. They are the ones most capable of
overcoming the momentum loss of the bat during the
collision. They are indeed applying a force during the
collision, and the more force they apply the greater
the acceleration of the ball.
My seven month old son is crying now and I must go
change his poopy diaper. In fact, strangely, now I am
thinking of Mike Spew Cow!
-Marc
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