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Name:  Paul
Status:  student
Age:  13
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
My new aluminum baseball bat has a three part air chamber for more pop off the bat. How does this happen?

Replies:
Hi Paul :

A while back, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the use of "loaded" bats in the Major Leagues. These loaded bats had the ends drilled out and were filled with cork. There were a lot of crazy explanations given for why this worked (or did not work). The fact is that there is one thing, over everything else, that will allow you to hit the ball farther - bat speed. The faster that the end of the bat moves, the more energy is transmitted to the baseball, and the further the ball will go. By replacing some of the aluminum in the end of your bat with air, the bat weighs less, and you can swing it faster. You can read more about this in a very interesting book called "The Physics of Baseball" by Robert Adair.

Jim Rubin


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