Baseball and STEM Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout digs in at home plate The pitcher fires a curveball Trout sees the spin of the ball as it flies toward him He swings his bat at just the right moment and hits the ball in just the right spot Crack The ball is going going gone Home run Trout may make it look easy but a lot of hard work and a little bit of STEM make for the perfect home run SCIENCE From the rotation on a pitcher's curveball to the arc of a long home run a baseball moves according to the laws of physics TECHNOLOGY Discover how teams use tech like radar guns to improve ENGINEERING Stadiums are designed to help fans enjoy games more than ever MATH Information about teams and players is gathered as numbers called stats A winning score is just the beginning
Science and strength make Mike Trout a star batter
SCIENCE Curveballs With every throw the pitcher tries to get the baseball past a hitter Sometimes that means throwing the ball so that it turns as it moves toward the hitter A curveball follows a straight path then swoops and dives at the last second How does a pitcher make the ball move this way It's All in the Seams The seams on a baseball rise about 0.03 inches 0.76 mm above the surface of the ball That's only about the same thickness as 10 sheets of notebook paper However this small height is enough to create friction where the air rushes over the seams The ball's spinning motion combined with friction causes the ball to move to one side or the other A pitcher controls that movement by the way he grips the seams and spins the ball as he lets it go
The dotted yellow line shows the path a curveball takes It starts by moving straight and then it dives down and to the side A fastball on the other hand stays on a straight path A good curveball might trick a batter into missing the pitch
