Physics of Baseball: Third Edition, Revised, Updated, and Expanded

Review

Review of Novel


I enjoyed my book The Physics of Baseball Third Edition and I would highly recommend it to any baseball fan or enthusiast. Although it can be a little difficult to read it can really help you comprehend and understand the game of baseball. The book blends scientific fact and baseball trivia very nicely. Another part of the book that I enjoyed was that it answered questions that you may have thought of before regarding baseball but didn't know the answer. It will also answer questions that are not realistic but are pretty amusing and fun to know, such as how much can a curve ball break. So this book has a lot of facts as I mentioned. However, that's not all. It also can change the way you play the sport. It tells you hitting the ball with back spin can easily be the difference between getting out and hitting the ball out of the ballpark. The book gives an example about if you play in Denver or somewhere with an high altitude and have thin air that batted balls can travel up to 10% farther. The book is filled with a total of 177 facts about famous players and incidents. For example, Mickey Mantel has one of the longest homerun shots on record 560 feet. With recent technology perfected by IBM tale of the tape that has estimated within 5 feet his homerun to actually be approximately 575 feet. The Physics of Baseball provides fans with fascinating insights into American's favorite pastime. You should definitely read this book if you play or if you are a baseball fan like me!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

wow

This book was basically one of the best books on how physics relates to baseball. Definately the best that I have ever read. Even if you dont like baseball you need to pick yourself up a copy and start reading like crazy. It is just amazing how the author knows so much about physics and baseball. I myself play baseball and had no idea that physics played such a role in the games outcome. For example, the author talked about how the laces on a ball can affect the balls flight path. Another example would be how the bat speed can determine how far you hit the ball. I am almost certain that if a major league baseball player were to femiliarize himself with this book it would almost immediantly make him a better player. This book also opened my eyes to the possibility that physics can play a part in baseball that it could play a part in other sports such as football. Overall this was a great book and I personally recomend it to anyone that has some free time on their hands. Actually even if you dont have some free time, make some. This book was astounding and spectacular. Any adjective in the dictionary that means good, applies to this book. Read it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Best Book About Baseball Ever!

The Physics of Baseball Third Edition is a great book and reveals a lot of really cool facts about baseball. Anyone who plays baseball or is a fan of baseball definitely needs to pick themselves up a copy of this book. Even if you don't like baseball, you will find that you keep coming back to read more and more of this book because it is so informal and interesting. The author, Robert K. Adair, covers a variety of topics about baseball in this book including the basis of physical principles, the flight of balls, the liveliness of balls, the structure of bats, and the character of the collision of balls and bats. As you read this book, you will keep on learning more and more cool and interesting facts about baseball and physics and won't want to stop reading until you finish. When I read this book, I couldn't put it down because every time I finished a chapter, I loved what I read and was excited to keep on reading and see what Robert K. Adair had to say in the next chapter. You will be amazed at all of the unbelievable things that are explained about pitching and batting and just baseball in general. Every chapter of this book is full of interesting information about baseball and after reading this book, my overall thoughts and feelings were that it is the best book ever made about baseball. I would definitely recommend anyone who gets a chance to read this book, The Physics of Baseball Third Edition, because it is one of the best books that I have ever read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

More Interesting Than expected

The Physics of Baseball, by Robert K. Adair, is a very fascinating book that reads similar to a school textbook. The book gives insight that most normal people do not know on the wonderful sport of baseball. It includes many interesting diagrams, charts, and figures to depict certain things such as path or distance of the ball, path of a bat relative to a certain pitch, and charts showing statistics from the major league ballplayers. The book starts out describing linear models and moves directly to the flight of the ball in the next chapter. It talks about things such as spin on the ball and force added to make the ball fly in a certain path. Adair also cover certain factors of baseball such as wind resistance. After the flight of the ball, Adair discusses swinging the bat, which is much more complex than I had previously thought. If you think swinging is about you just meeting the bat to the ball, you have no idea what it really is all about. Physics goes into depth about the time the ball takes to reach the plate at certain speeds and when the bat should be swung. For example, it takes a 95 mph fastball 400 millisecond to reach the plate. It takes the average major league player 150 milliseconds to swing and obviously the faster the bat speed, the farther the ball will travel when struck properly. Next after hitting, is pitching. The pitching rubber is exactly ten inches higher than the batters plate and Adair shows how certain pitches pass certain points and makes the batters job more difficult. Of course everything is much more intricately than what I have said. What I also found interesting in Physics was that taller pitchers do not have to exert as much force to make the ball travel to the plate faster as do smaller pitchers because of the angle at which the ball needs to go. Other things talked about in The Physics of Baseball are bat properties, fielding, throwing, and judging fly balls. The bat properties have to do with vibrations of the bat and the ¿sweet spot¿ where when hit the ball will travel the farthest. Overall The Physics of Baseball is very interesting though throughout it's shorter than you think 150 pages it can drag at times.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Now We Know...

As baseball players, we likely have oft wondered why it felt so good to hit the ball hard and far. Now we know, courtesy of Professor Adair: hitting the ball at the sweet spot of the bat eliminates wobble at the handle and that stinging sensation in our hands. I echo the view that every baseball fan should own a copy of this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Encouraging baseball, math and science skills in youth

I selected this book for my son, who is sixteen now, because of his skills in math and science, and his interest and ability in baseball. He's listed in the Who's Who of American High School students now. I selected this book for him when he was a little bit younger. As a parent, I like to encourage his abilities, whenever I can. (his brother's, too) I like to think that the early years we spent reading together helped to develop his interests. I know that he enjoyed the book, and that he still has it. He has quite a collection of other books on baseball, too. This is a great book.