Ask A Scientist© Physics Archive

name         Paul
status       student
age          13

Question -   My new aluminum baseball bat has a three part air
chamber for more pop off the bat.  How does this happen?

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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