Relativistic Baseball

[YosemiteSam]

This is all kinds of awesome. It is a new segment created by xkcd.com called What-If. Go check it out with the link below.

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What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?

Let’s set aside the question of how we got the baseball moving that fast. We'll suppose it's a normal pitch, except in the instant the pitcher releases the ball, it magically accelerates to 0.9c. From that point onward, everything proceeds according to normal physics.:

The answer turns out to be “a lot of things”, and they all happen very quickly, and it doesn’t end well for the batter (or the pitcher). I sat down with some physics books, a Nolan Ryan action figure, and a bunch of videotapes of nuclear tests and tried to sort it all out. What follows is my best guess at a nanosecond-by-nanosecond portrait:

Complete Article

 

[Phoenix]

yeah I saw this last week - awesomeness

 

[wittenacious]

Postulating: So bat speed could conceivably increase — proportionately — as well? Talk about breaking bats now. Man!

And, if possible, perhaps the batter wouldn't be so unsuspecting...

http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/1/04.png

I guess the tough thing would be knowing when to swing and "crack" your wrists through impact, though. And hand-eye coordination... "Fuhgeddaboutit!"

And the poor catcher... what sorta gear would he need to even hope to contain pitching like that?!

My mind is duly boggled.