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Informative Essay On Curveballs

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Have you ever wondered whether or not a curveball is good to throw. I've played baseball for many years now and my coaches always said "Don't throw curveballs." As the years progressed more and more kids on different teams started to throw curveballs. I want to find out the science and physics of the curveball, the effects on the arm from a curveball, and if curveballs can even help your pitching. If I would want to throw curveballs some day I should find this out. Are curveballs good to throw? We need to know about how a curveball actually moves before we can learn about its effects on the arm. The movement of a curveball is based off of these two theories: the Bernoulli principle and the Magnus effect. The Bernoulli principle is where a spinning ball creates a slower airspeed over the ball and a faster airspeed on the bottom. This creates a difference of pressures from top to bottom where the high pressure on top flows towards the low pressure on the bottom …show more content…

In 1864, William Arthur "Candy" Cummings developed the curveball while studying at Falley Seminary. Cummings made a career out the curveball, and he ended up being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame (Candy). In the 2011 MLB season, 1,749 home runs were hit off of fastballs by right handed batters. Also the right handed batters swung and missed at 16,622 fastballs. The right handed batters versus fastballs were 9.5 times more likely to swing and miss against fastballs (Karakolis). Also in the 2011 MLB season, 178 home runs were hit off of curveballs by right handed batters. They swung and missed at 3,532 curveballs. The right handed batters versus the curveballs were 19.8 times more likely to swing and miss against curveballs (Karakolis). From this we can tell how the curveball played a substantial role in baseball, and the curveball helped pitchers against the

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