{"id":18240,"date":"2019-10-14T03:33:49","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T03:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=18240"},"modified":"2019-10-15T15:51:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T15:51:03","slug":"curious-kids-how-does-a-curveball-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/curious-kids-how-does-a-curveball-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious Kids: How does a curveball curve?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/jim-gregory-856121\">Jim Gregory<\/a>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/the-ohio-state-university-759\">The Ohio State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-left \"><img src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=293&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=293&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=293&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=368&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=368&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/281719\/original\/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=368&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/us\/topics\/curious-kids-us-74795\">Curious Kids<\/a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href=\"mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com\">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<blockquote><p><strong>How does a curveball curve? \u2013 Marek Powell, age 12, Dorchester, Massachusetts<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OoxtQ1bCLqQ?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>You may have seen a pitcher throw a <a href=\"http:\/\/m.mlb.com\/glossary\/pitch-types\/curveball\">curveball<\/a> in baseball. It\u2019s a pitch that can confuse a batter because it looks like it\u2019s flying straight but then curves away as it crosses home plate.<\/p>\n<p>The pitcher puts a spin on the ball when they release it from their hand. This could be a \u201ctopspin\u201d rotation, where the top of the ball spins forward while the ball hurtles towards the plate. That creates air pressure differences on the ball that cause it to \u201cbreak,\u201d or change direction.<\/p>\n<p>When the ball is spinning, it\u2019s dragging the air with it due to friction between the air and the ball. It\u2019s like there\u2019s a whirlpool of motion of the air around the ball.<\/p>\n<p>As the ball is spinning, it slows down the air on the top of the ball. On the bottom, the opposite is true. It\u2019s dragging the air with it as it rotates and moves towards the plate, speeding up the flow of air.<\/p>\n<div data-react-class=\"Tweet\" data-react-props=\"{&quot;tweetId&quot;:&quot;1181292399634477056&quot;}\"><\/div>\n<p>So you\u2019ve got this change in speed of the air between the top and the bottom of the ball. Lower speed air has higher pressure. Higher speed air has lower pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The difference in force acting on either side pushes the ball in a particular direction. So if the ball is spinning forward with topspin, you have a force pushing it down. If it\u2019s spinning it to the side, there\u2019s going to be a force pushing it to the side.<\/p>\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=rOBt4m4AAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">study airplane aerodynamics<\/a>, and there\u2019s a connection here \u2013 airplanes and baseballs have more in common than you might think. Airplane wings have low pressure on the top of the wing and higher pressure on the bottom of the wing. That pressure difference creates a force that pushes the wing up, supporting the weight of the airplane against gravity. It\u2019s the motion of air over the wing that creates those pressure differences that make an airplane fly. That pressure difference is the exact same principle that makes a baseball curve.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href=\"mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com\">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. We won\u2019t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.<\/em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/108568\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/jim-gregory-856121\">Jim Gregory<\/a>, Professor of Mechanical &amp; Aerospace Engineering, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/the-ohio-state-university-759\">The Ohio State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/curious-kids-how-does-a-curveball-curve-108568\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Gregory, The Ohio State University Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. How does a curveball curve? \u2013 Marek Powell, age 12, Dorchester, Massachusetts You may have seen a pitcher throw a curveball in baseball. It\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":18239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3410],"tags":[179,6689,6786,502,203,7076],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18257,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18240\/revisions\/18257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}