Assignments

For Monday August 27, read Chapters 1 and 2 of Adair, The Physics of Baseball. Also, make sure you have Excel installed on your computer and familiarize yourself with it. Finally, look over the formula sheet to refresh your memory about things you learned in your high school physics course.

For Monday September 10, set up Excel to calculate trajectories of baseballs. You may download the spreadsheet trajectory-vacuum.xls.For v₀=100 mph, find angle for maximum distance by simply varying the initial angle and determining the distance numerically. For initial angle of 30^o, find the maximum distance for v₀ in the range 50-120 mph. In both cases, compare with the exact formulas that we wrote down in class.

For Monday September 17, set up Excel to calculate trajectories of baseballs including air resistance. You may download the spreadsheet trajectory-drag.xls. For v₀=100 mph, find angle for maximum distance by simply varying the initial angle and determining the distance numerically. For initial angle of 35^o, find the maximum distance for v₀ in the range 50-120 mph. Also, re-read Chapter 2 of Adair to familiarize yourself with the Magnus force and its effect on trajectories. For those of you who want to learn more, you might like to read the paper I wrote on the subject.

For Friday September 28, read Adair, Chapter 4 (Pitching). Also read the paper "On the potential of a chemical Bonds: Possible effects of steroids on home
run production in baseball" for discussion in class.

Class Projects (all due on Monday December 3):

Papers: At least 4 pages long, double-spaced, 12-pt font (preferably Times New Roman). Any figures, pictures, tables, and references are in addition to the 4 pages.

Presentations: Use Powerpoint (or, if you prefer, make a PDF file). Plan on a total time of 15 minutes, with 12-13 minutes of actual presentation and the remainder for questions.