What makes a baseball curve?

When pitching a curveball, the pitcher puts a spin on the ball as it leaves his hand. As it travels through the air, the spin causes the ball to disturb the air around it. Specifically, the spin causes air on one side of the ball to move faster than the other, resulting in uneven pressure on the ball, making it curve.

Does a baseball actually curve?

A major league curveball can veer as much as 17 1/2 inches from a straight line by the time it crosses the plate. Over the course of a pitch, the deflection from a straight line increases with distance from the pitcher. So curveballs do most of their curving in the last quarter of their trip.

What is the physics behind a curveball?

Curveballs curve — or break downward — because of the spin imparted by the pitcher as he flings it toward home plate. The way Briggs explained it, the rotation of the seams creates a "whirlpool" of air around the ball and causes the pressure to be lower on one side.

How fast does a baseball have to go to curve?

Scientific experiments show that the maximum curve a baseball pitcher can expect to throw is about 17 inches. The most effective speed is about 100 feet per second, which is well within the capacity of a professional pitcher. Speed by itself, however, has little effect. The important thing is the amount of spin.

What does curve mean in baseball?

A curveball is a breaking pitch that has more movement than just about any other pitch. It is thrown slower and with more overall break than a slider, and it is used to keep hitters off-balance. When executed correctly by a pitcher, a batter expecting a fastball will swing too early and over the top of the curveball.

Why do spinning balls curve?

As it travels through the air, the spin causes the ball to disturb the air around it. Specifically, the spin causes air on one side of the ball to move faster than the other, resulting in uneven pressure on the ball, making it curve.

Why is a curveball called an Uncle Charlie?

One of the early nicknames of the curveball was Uncle Charlie, or sometimes, Lord Charles. This was derived from the name of Harvard President Charles Elliot, who was opposed to the adoption of the curveball and considered it to be cheating. No surprise there, because Harvard was the curveball's original victim.

What's the farthest a baseball can be hit?

Although we may never be able to know for sure what the farthest hit baseball was, we can assume a range from different sources and that's from about 150–200 m (500–650 feet).

Is a 600 foot home run possible?

The predictions of the physics despite the issue of over-estimated backspin, is remarkably consistent with the results from ESPN Home Run Tracker at least as far as the maximum possible homer. It seems that the limit is somewhere a bit above 500 feet. So, it seems that 600 footers are out of the question.

What is a sweeping curve?

adjective [ADJECTIVE noun] A sweeping curve is a long wide curve.

Is a curveball an optical illusion?

The common perception of a curveball is that it flies straight after it's thrown, then breaks and curves at some point midway through the air. In actuality, the curveball is curving the whole time, but human perception cannot detect it.

Which way does a curve ball curve?

If a ball is thrown with a counter-clockwise spin, it will curve towards the left. If it's thrown with a downward spin, then the ball will curve downwards.

Can you throw a curveball with a smooth ball?

To throw a curveball with a taped up wiffle ball, Just grip it like a 4-seam fastball, but put your 2 top fingers together. Then when you throw, snap your wrist and elbow over the top of the ball. It will sink and curve. To throw a slider just grip a taped up wiffle ball like a 4-seam fastball and throw it side arm.

What's the farthest home run ever?

On June 2, 1987, Denver Zephyrs slugger Joey Meyer hit a ball into the second deck of the old Mile High Stadium. The home run was measured as having landed an improbable 582 feet from home plate. If accurate, it stands as the longest homer in professional baseball history.

Who is the real home run king?

1. Barry Bonds – 762 home runs. The controversial Bonds — who is not in the Hall of Fame — sits atop the list for most home runs in a career (762) and most in a single season (73 in 2001). The seven-time MVP is also the all-time leader in walks (2,558) and led the league in on-base percentage 10 times.

Who has the farthest home run?

Here is the longest verified home run in professional baseball history! In 1987, Joey Meyer, playing for the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs, launched this ball an astonishing 582 FEET!

Who threw the fastest pitch?

Fastest pitch ever thrown

As a result, Aroldis Chapman is credited with throwing the fastest pitch in MLB history. On Sept. 24, 2010, Chapman made MLB history. Then a rookie relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, the fireballer unleashed a fastball clocked at 105.1 mph by PITCH/fx.

Has anyone hit a homerun cycle?

Though multiple home run cycles have been recorded in collegiate baseball, the only known home run cycle in a professional baseball game belongs to Tyrone Horne, playing for the Arkansas Travelers in a Double-A level Minor League Baseball game against the San Antonio Missions on July 27, 1998.

Who is the greatest hitter in baseball history?

Joe DiMaggio

DiMaggio accomplished perhaps the greatest hitting feat in MLB history. The New York Yankees center fielder got a hit in 56 consecutive games from May 15 to July 16 during the 1941 season, far and away the longest hitting streak of all time.

Why do they say can of corn in baseball?

can of corn. A high, easy-to-catch, fly ball hit to the outfield. The phrase is said to have originated in the nineteenth-century and relates to an old-time grocer's method of getting canned goods down from a high shelf.

Who threw the first knuckleball?

Toad Ramsey, a pitcher from 1885 to 1890, is credited in some later sources with being the first knuckleballer, apparently based primarily on accounts of how he gripped the ball; however, based on more contemporary descriptions of his pitch as an "immense drop ball", it may be that his pitch was a form of knuckle curve ...

Where does the phrase curve ball come from?

This colloquial term comes from baseball, where a pitcher tries to fool the batter by using a curve ball, which is thrown with sufficient spin to make it veer from its expected path. The term was transferred to other kinds of surprise, not necessarily unpleasant, in the mid-1900s.

What is reverse Magnus effect?

The reverse Magnus effect occurs when the boundary layer on the advancing surface separates further downstream than the boundary layer on the retreating surface on a ball thrown with backspin, which results in a downward force or negative lift.

Why is a slider so hard to hit?

Outside of the science of our eyes, so much of what makes a slider hard to hit, according to Phillips, derives from the increasing velocity of the average fastball. For a pitcher like Jordan Hicks, whose average fastball sits at 101 mph, a slider can be a devastating complementary pitch.

What is meant by Magnus effect?

The Magnus effect is a particular manifestation of Bernoulli's theorem: fluid pressure decreases at points where the speed of the fluid increases. In the case of a ball spinning through the air, the turning ball drags some of the air around with it.

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