Tabletop experiment to determine the center of percussion of a baseball bat.
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| Title: | Tabletop experiment to determine the center of percussion of a baseball bat. |
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| Authors: | Vexler, David1 (AUTHOR), Stein, Adrian1 (AUTHOR), Singh, Tarunraj1 (AUTHOR) tsingh@buffalo.edu |
| Source: | International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education. Jan2026, Vol. 54 Issue 1, p3-17. 15p. |
| Subjects: | Physics, Sports sciences, Research methodology, Scientific experimentation, Acquisition of data, Baseball teams |
| Abstract: | The center of percussion is an essential physics concept with a variety of practical applications. For any handheld object there is a point that, once a force is applied to it, results in no acceleration at the hands because the translational and angular accelerations from the force cancel each other out. This point is referred to as the center of percussion. Although the concept of the center of percussion is applicable to a variety of different areas, this paper focuses on America's favorite pastime; the sport of baseball. The center of percussion of a baseball bat, also referred to as the "sweet spot", is the optimal spot for making contact with a moving baseball. This paper demonstrates the development of a tabletop model for visually explaining this process of identifying the center of percussion to an audience. The setup is an instrumented experiment with an integrated data acquisition system to collect, visualize, and analyze the data for the demonstration of the process to identify a baseball bat's center of percussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
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| Abstract: | The center of percussion is an essential physics concept with a variety of practical applications. For any handheld object there is a point that, once a force is applied to it, results in no acceleration at the hands because the translational and angular accelerations from the force cancel each other out. This point is referred to as the center of percussion. Although the concept of the center of percussion is applicable to a variety of different areas, this paper focuses on America's favorite pastime; the sport of baseball. The center of percussion of a baseball bat, also referred to as the "sweet spot", is the optimal spot for making contact with a moving baseball. This paper demonstrates the development of a tabletop model for visually explaining this process of identifying the center of percussion to an audience. The setup is an instrumented experiment with an integrated data acquisition system to collect, visualize, and analyze the data for the demonstration of the process to identify a baseball bat's center of percussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 03064190 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/03064190241272555 |
