Math: How Is Math Used In Softball

For example, the exit speed for a baseball player's swing is 103 miles per hour. This is much higher than softballs exit speed for a swing which is only about 80 miles per hour. My experience with this is that it makes it very difficult to field a baseball. Along with the bat speed and how fast the ball comes off the bat, there is also the arm speed of the players. In baseball, naturally, the athlete's arm strength is much stronger than that of a softball player. The average infielder for a team throws the ball at approximately 90 miles per hour. Because of this, the ability to run out a ground ball in baseball is less likely to happen. Therefore making the sport more difficult to succeed in.

The object of softball is to score runs by hitting the ball and touching all the bases without being tagged or thrown out. Softball games last for seven innings. The pitcher will pitch to a batter until one of four things happens: The batter gets three strikes against him/her. A strike occurs when the batter swings at a pitch but misses it or hits it foul with less than two strikes against him/her, or when the pitch passes through the strike zone but the batter does not swing at it. The pitcher throws four "balls," which are pitches that fail to pass through the strike zone and which are not swung at by the batter. In this case the batter "walks," meaning he or she is awarded first base. The pitcher hits the batter with a pitch. In this case,

Running, catching, and hitting are some types of actions used in the game of baseball.

The skill level needed to successfully hit off the different materials remains another argument between metal versus wood bats. Metal bats have been proven to require less skill to hit with because of their weight difference and the size of their "sweet spots" compared to wooden bats. With most metal bats being made of aluminum, they weigh in much lighter than bats made of solid wood. It is much easier for players to swing the aluminum bats due to that fact ("Baseball: Wooden Bats Vs. Metal Bats"). The lighter weight allows players to swing faster, which helps put more force on the ball, resulting in the ball flying farther and much faster. In a test comparing wood bats to multiple types of metal bats, balls batted off wood bats obtained an average speed of 98.6 mph, while balls hit with the different types of metal bats obtained speeds between 100.3 mph and 106.5 mph (Russell). These results show that the lighter weight of the metal bats, helps drive the ball faster and farther and is not necessarily

Softball is a sport that is known throughout the United States and the world. Softball originated on Thanksgiving Day in Chicago in 1887. The game was actually said to have begun as an indoor game. Softball was started by a group of men who had gathered at a club to watch the Harvard vs. Yale football game. When the news came that Yale had defeated Harvard, 17-8, one Yale supporter, overcome with enthusiasm, picked up an old boxing glove and threw it at a nearby Harvard alumni, who promptly tried to hit it back with a stick. This gave George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, an idea. He suggested a game of indoor baseball. Naturally, Hancock's friends thought he was talking about playing a game outdoors, not indoors.

Also making sure you have a good grip on the baseball and placing your fingers on the “horseshoe” with both index fingers being perpendicular to one another

For Newton's first law of motion which states that "every object remains at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force" is seen in both pitching and hitting. When the game is on going pitchers wait for a signal from the catcher before throwing. While they are waiting they hold the baseball in their glove or hand before throwing. Once they receive the signal they windup their arm and send the ball into motion down to home base. Pitchers uses Newton's first law of motion in order to throw fastballs, sliders, and curve balls. When you are up at bat you wait until the pitcher sets the ball in motion. Once the ball is in motion the hitter sets the bat in motion by swinging at the

and the hand continues through its motion. Angles were placed on each still shot at the

     High tech aluminum baseball bats aren’t quite as new to the game as many people may think. Author, Patrick Hruby, wrote in Sports Illustrated, “introduced in the mid-1970’s… metal bats have become increasingly potent, forged with alloys… pressurized air chambers” (Hruby 42). Over the

When you're finishing a race you want to finish well. When you hold your finish in basketball. All of these things help you to get results that you want. The follow through and finish is very important to your swing. When swinging your follow through should be high. You almost want your bat to be facing the sky, or ceiling in this case. Following through is what tells the ball where to go. It’s just like in basketball if your follow through is a little left the ball with go left. In softball if your bat is facing left field it will probably go to left field. Finishing is an important part of having the perfect swing.

After having gained all the materials needed and having the proper instruction, you can now begin learning to throw different pitches. However, you must first know what each pitch does, what the pitch is used to do, and how the pitch is most effective for you. The three main pitches are the fastball, change-up, and curveball. To start, the fastball is a pitch that has the most speed out of any other pitch. While the pitch is called a fastball, there are two different types of fastballs: the two-seam and the four-seam. The two-seam fastball is relatively similar to the four-seam, however the two-seam will move into a right handed batter and away from a left handed batter. The fastball is used to get a strike on the batter, set the batter nup for an offspeed pitch, and often, it is used after an offspeed pitch to disrupt the hitter’s timing. Now, the curveball is often the pitch with the lowest velocity. A curveball also has the most movement among all pitches.

In the game of softball the baselines are only sixty feet long. Therefore, you must run super fast in order to be safe at first base. However, baseball baselines are ninety feet long, so the infielders have more time to get the runner out, and the runners have a longer distance to run. Softball pitchers have an advantage because the pitching mound is so close. An elite softball pitcher can throw speeds topping seventy miles per hour. This means a softball pitch can reach the plate in only thirty-five hundredths of a second! That is actually faster than it takes a 100 miles per hour major league fastball to reach home plate. The baseball takes thirty-eight hundredths of a second. After locating the pitch, a softball batter only has about twenty-five milliseconds to decide to swing or not. That is about fifty-five percent less time than a major league baseball player has. The game of softball can be very challenging for a batter. However, it can be even more challenging for an infielder. When balls come off of the bat at about one hundred miles per hour, a softball

handled bats, as opposed to the heavy, thick handled bats used by players in the Dead Ball Era

In the 1970’s when aluminum bats were first introduced lower type of alloys were used, which probably meant the ball didn't go too far once it hit the bat. As bat designs were improving better metals were used such as 7046 which is a type of strong and sturdy aluminum. The people who made the bats adjusted amounts of zinc, magnesium, and scandium which improve the bats drastically. In conclusion, I hypothesize that aluminum bats make the ball go farther because that's why they use wooden bats in the MLB so the ball won't go as far once it's hit.

When it comes to Baseball and Softball, these two sports have many similarities, but yet differ in many areas of the game. It insists, “Softball is often referred to baseball for girls, with a larger ball and aa smaller diamond” (History of Softball). Even though there may be some truth about that statement, it doesn’t mean that’s the only difference between the two. When it comes down to it, both sports have specific field requirements, equipment, rules and future occupations.