The Physics of Baseball by Robert Adair

[GGC]

I haven't read this book in a while and was thinking about picking it up soon at the library. How good in the science in this book? I think that sweaver is a physicist and might be able to enlighten me.

One book that I would like to see is a down to earth "Biology of Baseball." I know that SABR has recently started a science and baseball committee and they are exploring some issues in neuroscience.

[Skip]

You may want to see this:

http://www.ajprint.net/archive_authors/canfield/interview.html

This was discussed indirectly in a couple threads here before, you'll have to dig through the threads a bit to find the relevant parts. The words physics, adair, and baseball will be highlighted.

http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3340&highlight=physics+adair+baseball

http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3614&highlight=physics+adair+baseball

[satchel]

It's a good little book and the analysis is sharp. Some of the problems are really hard though - turbulent airflow over a rough spinning surface is just not an easily tractable problem. So expect some handwaving and some counterintuitiveness.

[Skip]

Kind of like the way engineers assume any 3-D shape is a sphere - it makes the math easier.

[SmedIndy]

Liked it but it's not one I turn to every week or month. It's nice to have on the shelf, though.

[sweaver]

Well, Gary, satchel is a physicist-turned-lawyer, JamesI is a grad student, and Skip is a physicist-mathemetician-computer expert, so we have no dearth of physics knowledge on the board. I think all of us would bow in our knowledge to Professor Adair, certainly the ranking scientist in my experience on the subject of the physics of baseball.

I have a copy of the book, and recommend it highly to anyone with twin interests of science and sports.

[JamesI]

Originally posted by Skip
Kind of like the way engineers assume any 3-D shape is a sphere - it makes the math easier.

Of course we do (physicists as well as engineers). I had a test question where it began look at the test proctor. If he is not already assume him to be spherical.

On topic, this is a good book.

[Skip]

Originally posted by sweaver
Skip is a physicist-mathemetician-computer expert For the sake of honesty, I am a mathematician/computer engineer type who just happens to have taken a bunch of physics courses along the way. I'm not really a physicist ... though I play one in low level UG courses. :)

[gyb13]

...and you did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.


GGC - do you know what that SABR committee is doing exactly, and whether they eventually plan on publishing something?

[GGC]

gyb, they have a yahoo group. The link escapes me, but I found it through the SABR website. I saw a few posts on neurosciences but I haven't really read their stuff deeply; I mostly scanned it.

[GGC]

Here's the link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SABR_Baseball_Science/?yguid=75903903