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Baseball Aerodynamics

The fluid dynamics of baseball pitches

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Things that don’t neatly fit into the other topics

The Apparent Tilt of Seam Shifted Wake Pitches: Post 59

Posted on June 6, 2020June 9, 2020 by bartonlsmith

Conventional pitches break because of two forces, gravity and Magnus force (the ball experiences drag also, but drag his little effect on the direction of a pitch). When a Seam Shifted Wake (SSW) occurs, the forces causing break are gravity, Magnus force and the SSW force. This article will assume Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes, UMBA

Diagnosing and Modeling SSW pitches: Post 58

Posted on May 24, 2020June 3, 2020 by bartonlsmith

I’ve carried on about this, but if you throw a Seam Shifted Wake pitch, there is currently no way to know that it moved differently than any other pitch. I’ve known for some time that this was an obstacle to our work. I’ve been told many times that these effects Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes, UMBA

How to tell if you threw a SSW pitch, sinker/changeup edition: Post 57

Posted on May 14, 2020July 29, 2020 by bartonlsmith

This is a sinker/changeup edition because it is focused on vertical movement. I may tackle horizontal movement later. Say you are an ambitious pitcher looking to get ahead and have drank our Seam Shifted Wake Koolaid (it’s good!) Did the pitch work? How can you know? Note that, on their Continue Reading

Posted In General

Killing Laminar Flow: Post 56

Posted on April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 by bartonlsmith

When you hear people describe flow over baseballs, there is frequent reference to the seams causing Laminar flow to become Turbulent. To start, I’d better explain what those terms mean. Laminar flow is what Juniors in Physics or Engineering learn about in their fluid dynamics class. It is usually steady Continue Reading

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What Magnus Effect Looks Like: Post 53

Posted on March 24, 2020July 14, 2021 by bartonlsmith

My PhD Student, Nazmus Sakib, just published our first paper together, which was on Magnus Force and Reverse Magnus on golf balls. You can download it here if you are interested. While this site is about baseballs, Magnus is a lot easier to see on a golf ball since flow Continue Reading

Posted In General

Describing Ball Orientation: Post 51

Posted on March 9, 2020December 2, 2022 by bartonlsmith

Note that this post has been updated to reflect an change in the origin of Orientation. One of our main messages has been that: The ball Orientation relative to the axis is important. And for the people who are willing to consider that idea, the obvious question is :how do Continue Reading

Posted In General

How to use the Looper and Scuffball: Post 50

Posted on February 27, 2020February 28, 2020 by bartonlsmith

We’ve recently shown results of two Seam Shifted Wake pitches with no gyro. The Scuffball and the Looper. These pitches involve using a specific orientation between the seams and the axis of rotation. As a result, we can generate break independently of the Magnus effect. One novel feature of these Continue Reading

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Rapsodo 1.0 and Seam Shifted Wake pitches: Post 48

Posted on February 15, 2020April 10, 2020 by bartonlsmith

I’ll start right out by saying this post is not a criticism of the Rapsodo technology. I think what these folks have provided for the price is pretty amazing (and I’m really geeked about their new camera, which looks like a game changer) But, like any technology, it has limits, Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

The State of Baseball Aerodynamics: Post 47

Posted on February 10, 2020February 11, 2020 by bartonlsmith

The State of the Baseball Aerodynamics is Strong! Sorry, always have wanted to do that. I’ve been at this for about 14 months. I thought this would be a good time to provide a (hopefully) concise summary of what we have learned. Seam Effects on Pitch Break I nearly said Continue Reading

Posted In Drag, General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

Magnus Models and Constant Acceleration Assumptions: Post 46

Posted on February 8, 2020February 11, 2020 by bartonlsmith

There are two major issues with current pitch tracking in the MLB. The measurement system, Trackman, does not make a direct measurement of the spin that contributes to Magnus force. It assumes all accelerations are constant over the entire flight of the ball. Each of these is important. I know Continue Reading

Posted In General

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