WHAT IF?
Editors Note: The following submission was written by Jack Freedman (’15) for his precalculus class; he investigates an interesting question that combines math with his love of baseball.
Q: What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?
A: (in my words): A lot would happen very fast, and it would not be pretty for the batter, pitcher, or stadium.
A: (in my words): A lot would happen very fast, and it would not be pretty for the batter, pitcher, or stadium.
A: (In my own words): First off, the ball would be going so fast that the molecules in the air would be comparably frozen, not avoiding the ball but rather colliding with the ball creating a fusion zone in front of the ball. The ball is hitting the air molecules so hard that the air molecules are fusing with the atoms on the surface of the ball, and with each fusion, gamma rays and other particles are flying off of the area.
Here are some pictures:
Here are some pictures:
“These gamma rays and debris expand outward in a bubble centered on the pitcher’s mound. They start to tear apart the molecules in the air, ripping the electrons from the nuclei and turning the air in the stadium into an expanding bubble of incandescent plasma. The wall of this bubble approaches the batter at about the speed of light—only slightly ahead of the ball itself.”
A batter’s brain usually has .3 - .5 seconds to figure out whether the pitch is good or not, but on this pitch, the ball is already half way to the batter and the batter hasn’t even seen the ball leave the pitcher’s hand. Even when the ball crosses the plate, at about 70 nanoseconds, the batter still hasn’t seen the ball leave the hand of the pitcher. Collisions with the air have eaten the ball away almost completely, and it is now a bullet-shaped cloud of expanding plasma (mainly carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen) ramming into the air and triggering more fusion as it goes. The shell of x-rays hits the batter first, and a handful of nanoseconds later the debris cloud hits. The shell of x-rays and superheated plasma expands outward and upward, swallowing the backstop. The teams, the stands, and the surrounding neighborhood— are disintegrated all in the first microsecond.
Everything within roughly a mile of the park is leveled, and a firestorm engulfs the surrounding city. The baseball diamond is now a sizable crater, centered a few hundred feet behind the former location of the backstop.
Everything within roughly a mile of the park is leveled, and a firestorm engulfs the surrounding city. The baseball diamond is now a sizable crater, centered a few hundred feet behind the former location of the backstop.
A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered "hit by pitch", and would be eligible to advance to first base.
I found this question amazingly interesting both because of its scientific explanation and it being about one of my favorite sports. I found this solution totally innovative and clever, and enjoyed reading the whole 3-page long answer. I wasn’t confused by too much of the solution, except for the whole fusion aspect, and the multiple rounds of fusion that the ball would create by going forwards with so much force. I feel bad for any catcher who has to catch that pitch.
I found this question amazingly interesting both because of its scientific explanation and it being about one of my favorite sports. I found this solution totally innovative and clever, and enjoyed reading the whole 3-page long answer. I wasn’t confused by too much of the solution, except for the whole fusion aspect, and the multiple rounds of fusion that the ball would create by going forwards with so much force. I feel bad for any catcher who has to catch that pitch.
