{"title":"The hardest-hit home run?","authors":"Donald C. Warren","doi":"arxiv-2408.14529","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We present a problem to be assigned or done as an in-class activity in an\nupper-division undergraduate course on computational physics. The problem\ninvolves a home run hit by Mickey Mantle on May 22, 1963, which he famously\ncalled ``the hardest ball I ever hit''. Is this home run truly one for the\nrecord books, or has it been eclipsed by players in the modern era? Modeling\nthe trajectory of a baseball involves consideration of both wind resistance and\nthe Magnus effect, and is an interesting application of numerical solution of\nordinary differential equations. Ultimately, the answer is that Mantle would\ncompare favorably to the most powerful batters currently playing, but to arrive\nat that conclusion we must reflect on the plausibility of results and sources\nof uncertainty.","PeriodicalId":501348,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - Popular Physics","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"arXiv - PHYS - Popular Physics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2408.14529","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We present a problem to be assigned or done as an in-class activity in an
upper-division undergraduate course on computational physics. The problem
involves a home run hit by Mickey Mantle on May 22, 1963, which he famously
called ``the hardest ball I ever hit''. Is this home run truly one for the
record books, or has it been eclipsed by players in the modern era? Modeling
the trajectory of a baseball involves consideration of both wind resistance and
the Magnus effect, and is an interesting application of numerical solution of
ordinary differential equations. Ultimately, the answer is that Mantle would
compare favorably to the most powerful batters currently playing, but to arrive
at that conclusion we must reflect on the plausibility of results and sources
of uncertainty.