UC Davis Scientists Learn How To Hit Home Runs

Engineers at UC Davis have just learned how to hit the long ball. In a study just published in the American Journal of Physics, these scientists developed “improved models for the pitch, batting, and post-impact flight phases of a baseball [for use in] an optimal control context to find bat swing parameters that produce maximum range.” There is lots of scary math and physics in this paper, but their most surprising conclusion is that an optimally hit curve ball will travel farther than a fastball, due to the initial topspin from the pitch. And hitting coaches can now tell their clientele that the optimal way to hit a fastball is to undercut it by 2.65 cm and swing upwards at an angle of 0.1594 radians. I’m sure that will help.