Paint Drying vs Lightning Strikes
The physics of sports
This past week I went to a New York Ranger hockey game1. I’m a sports fan. Playing both individual and team sports made my life in high school so much fun (even though I’m a teacher now, I didn’t really love going to class back then). Badminton was the individual sport I played in the fall. The brand the girls at my high school played was nothing like the lazy backyard version where you gently hit the birdie back and forth. No, this was a version of “killer badminton”, where often the shuttlecock, made of real feathers, was completely decimated at the end of a match. It was struck so hard and with such force that the feathers were sheared off, and all that was left were some stubble and the round cork base. The harder and faster the shuttlecock was hit the more acceleration and force the shot had.
I played team sports as well, with my favorite being softball. I was pretty good at the game, being involved since I was a little kids going to my brother’s baseball games. I’d bring a glove to his game and hope someone would want to play catch with me. Usually no one did, but I watched and learned.
I also began watching major league games at a young age. My father ran some sort of baseball betting pool at the local American Legion. How the betting happened, I don’t know. But I was tasked with keeping the score sheet of NY Mets games that detailed every at bat by both teams. This meant I had to pay attention and actually watch the game, play after play. Still to this day I can’t go to a game without buying a scoresheet and recording all the plays. And I will never forget the jingle for one of the Mets sponsor at the time, Rheingold Beer2. Both are a curse!
I don’t play sports anymore, but I still watch. My favorite sport is ice hockey. The game is so fast and takes lots of talent to play well. Not that baseball doesn’t take talent, of course it does. But baseball is slower and subdued. Here’s a few more things about each sport:
Baseball is called, “America’s National Past Time”; Ice hockey is the national winter sport of Canada
Baseball games are slow, average time to play a 9 inning game in 2021 was 3 hours, 10 minutes and 7 second; Hockey is played in 3 periods lasting 20 minute each, and a game without overtime lasts about 2 hours 45 minutes.
Baseball players use a round bat to hit a round ball, and they use gloves to catch the ball; Hockey players use sticks with long flexible carbon shafts and a curved blade at the end to hit the puck, and only the goalie can catch the puck
Top baseball hitters can hit the ball so that it has an exit velocity over 100 mph; The fastest hockey shot was clocked at around 110 mph.
Other than needing more than one person to play the game, the two sports are very different. The one major, glaring difference between the two sports, in my opinion, is that baseball is like watching paint dry and hockey is like watching a series of lightning strikes.
Don’t get me wrong. I love baseball. I’ve been a devoted NY Mets fan since I can remember. Every year, with the exception of 1969 and 1986, they broke my heart. I still turn the game on and listen to it, only looking up at the television when the voice of the announcer gets louder. Hockey, on the other hand, is a sport you must watch. There is always someone getting hit, a pass being made or a puck being shot towards the goal.
Both baseball and hockey share one other thing in common, and that’s how the game can be explained using concepts in physics. Baseball is constantly physics in action. As the ball is thrown, the pitcher tries to put as much spin on the ball as they can. As the ball moves towards home plate, a turbulent wake of air forms behind the ball. The wake gets deflected depending upon which way the ball rotates, causing the ball to move up, down or sideways. That movement causes even the best hitters in the game to miss the ball 7 out of 10 times. Last season baseball officials clamped down on pitchers adding substances to the ball that helped them grip the ball better and create more spin. Some people believe this is why more batters are getting hit by pitches so far this season.
Hockey is also physics in action. All parts of the game, from the skating to the puck to the curve of the hockey stick blade can all be explained in physics terms. Low friction between the ice and the skate blades allow the player to glide along. Moving forward, force is exerted on the ice as the player pushes with one skate in a perpendicular motion and raises the other skate. They alternate feet and repeat this motion as they propel themself down the ice. The puck used in a game is made of hard rubber, and is frozen before the game to reduce bounce and friction as is moves across the ice surface. The blades of hockey sticks are curved, which gives players more accuracy when they shoot the puck. As the puck is being struck, it moves to the bottoms of the curve, where it sits very briefly before the player strikes it. Players add tape to the blade to create more friction between it and the puck.
So the next time you watch a baseball game and your favorite pitcher strikes out the opponent’s best hitter 4 times (called a golden sombrero), or a hockey game and your favorite player get a hat trick (scores 3 goals in one game), thank physics.
Citations
https://thehoya.com/science-and-sports-the-physics-behind-baseball/
https://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/physics-of-hockey.html
The Rangers lost the hockey game. The friend that attended with is banned from all future games with me since this is the second game she attended that they lost. She’s obviously bad karma.
This is from a google search on Rheingold beer - The rising cost of land, labor, and virtually every other expense in New York City made it impossible for Schaefer and Rheingold to continue to brew beer in the city. I can also sing the Schaefer Beer jingle. Why do we remember such worthless information??