The sweet spot of a baseball bat

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 66, Issue 9, 1998, Pages 772-779

  Cross, Rod ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0032343344     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.19030     Document Type: Article

References (12)

1. About 60 Australians play in US Major League, and 500,000 Australian children play closely related games such as tee ball or softball at school.
2. H. Brody, "The sweet spot of a baseball bat," Am. J. Phys. 54, 640-643 (1986).
3. L. Noble and H. Walker, "Baseball bat inertial and vibrational characteristics and discomfort following ball-bat impacts," J. Appl. Biomech. 10, 132-144 (1994).
4. H. Brody, "Models of baseball bats," Am. J. Phys. 58, 756-758 (1990).
5. L. L. Van Zandt, "The dynamical theory of the baseball bat," Am. J. Phys. 60, 172-181 (1992).
6. H. Brody, "Physics of the tennis racket," Am. J. Phys. 47, 482-487 (1979).
7. H. Brody, "Physics of the tennis racket. II The sweet spot," Am. J. Phys. 49, 816-819 (1981).
8. P. Brancazio (private communication).
9. G. Watts and A. T. Bahill, Keep your Eye on the Ball, the Science and Folklore of Baseball (Freeman, New York, 1990), pp. 102-125.
10. R. K. Adair, "The physics of baseball," Phys. Today 48, 26-31 (May 1995).
11. R. C. Cross, "The dead spot of a tennis racket," Am. J. Phys. 65, 754-764 (1997).
12. cm decreases when mass is shifted toward one end of the bat. The reason is that the bat cm also shifts toward the heavy end, with the result that the shifted mass is closer to, rather than further from, the cm.