Until recently, we used a Hack Attack 3-wheeled pitching machine to launch baseballs. If you’ve ever used one of these, you know they are brutal on the baseballs. Also, the balls we used were Wilson 1010 or 1030 high-seamed balls. I’ve been careful to point out that those results may Continue Reading
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Laminar and Turbulent Boundary Layer Separation on New MLB balls Post #22
We are continuing our measurements on MLB balls and are learning some interesting things. First off, the physics are a bit more complicated than they were on machine-pitched high-seam balls. In that case, we found that the boundary layer was always turbulent when it separated. This finding made me somewhat Continue Reading
First PIV Measurements on MLB Balls Post #21
Thanks to Mike Fast of the Atlanta Braves and Professor Lloyd Smith at Washington State University, we have a large collection of brand new MLB balls and a means to launch them at high speed without damaging the ball. And we’ve rebuild our PIV setup. I am confident that this Continue Reading
Baseball Drag Crisis Post #20
Engineers and Physicists talk funny sometimes, and the term”drag crisis” is an example of funny talk. It’s not what you think. It does not refer to the huge increase in home runs in the MLB due to unexplained changes in the drag force on baseballs. It refers to a rather Continue Reading
Addendum: Cricket Balls and CFD on Baseballs Post #19
I was recently contacted by Dr. James A Scobie, a Lecturer at the University of Bath in England. He straightened me out on a few points about Cricket from my previous post. Specifically, he says: In cricket the bowler isn’t allowed to deliberately alter the ball. It’s true that the Continue Reading
Why I don’t want to talk about cricket balls, wind tunnel studies or CFD Post #18
This may sound cranky. I love hearing ideas from others, but some I am rather dismissive of, and I want to explain why. Cricket balls Let’s talk about the 40 ways cricket balls are nothing like baseballs. The leather of a cricket ball is covered in shellac which is easily Continue Reading
The theory of Seam-Controlled Wakes Post #17
Maybe it’s more of a hypothesis. I’ve been going on about this for a couple of weeks, but I’m not sure I’ve been able to make several of my points clear, so I’ll give it a shot here. Before diving in, note that I have changed the way I plot Continue Reading
A different idea on the “Laminar Express” Post #16
Nearly everyday, I hear someone say they are “humbled” due to some recognition, award, promotion, etc. It sounds like BS, and I think it’s because it is BS. If you want to feel humbled, put a theory out there on how something works, but continue to ask questions and entertain Continue Reading
A Complete Description of the Laminar Express Post #15
NOTE: The conclusions drawn in this post are based on an erroneous idea about the orientation of this pitch (Figure 4). For the correct ball orientation, this description does not make sense. For a better explanation, see the new post Let me say something important first. This is a fascinating pitch. Understanding it is going to require Continue Reading
What we still don’t know about Laminar Express Post #14
It was exciting to see the flow around a ball in flight experiencing this effect. We spent one day on it and were lucky to get the result we did. The day answered one basic question: is a laminar express different from a standard 2-seamer due to a somewhat forward-facing Continue Reading
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