Related papers: Scattering of a Baseball by a Bat
A magnetized bead in a magnetic field seeks to minimize its magnetic free energy by aligning its magnetic moment with the field direction and by moving towards the maximum of the field's intensity. However, when the bead is coupled to a…
If we consider a cat to be an isolated mechanical system governed by T-invariant mechanics, then its ability to land on its feet after being released from rest is incomprehensible. It is more appropriate to treat the cat as a creature that…
Non-relativistic particles that are effectively confined to two dimensions can in general move on curved surfaces, allowing dynamical phenomena beyond what can be described with scalar potentials or even vector gauge fields. Here we…
Professional baseball players are increasingly guaranteed expensive long-term contracts, with over 70 deals signed in excess of \$90 million, mostly in the last decade. These are substantial sums compared to a typical franchise valuation of…
In Major League Baseball, every ballpark is different, with different dimensions and climates. These differences make some ballparks more conducive to hitting home runs than others. Several factors conspire to make estimation of these…
A simple model for solid friction is analyzed. It is based on tangential springs representing interlocked asperities of the surfaces in contact. Each spring is given a maximal strain according to a probability distribution. At their maximal…
The Pythagorean formula is one of the most popular ways to measure the true ability of a team. It is very easy to use, estimating a team's winning percentage from the runs they score and allow. This data is readily available on standings…
The ballistic coefficient of a bullet describes how it slows in flight due to air resistance. This article presents experimental determinations of ballistic coefficients showing that the majority of bullets tested have their previously…
Bullets are fired, one per second, with independent speeds sampled uniformly from a discrete set. Collisions result in mutual annihilation. We show that the second fastest bullet survives with positive probability, while a slowest bullet…
Spin chains have been proposed as a reliable and convenient way of transferring information and entanglement in a quantum computational context. Nonetheless, it has to be expected that any physical implementation of these systems will be…
Traditional NBA player evaluation metrics are based on scoring differential or some pace-adjusted linear combination of box score statistics like points, rebounds, assists, etc. These measures treat performances with the outcome of the game…
We report an experimental, numerical and theoretical study of the motion of a ball on a rough inclined surface. The control parameters are $D$, the diameter of the ball, $\theta$, the inclination angle of the rough surface and $E_{ki}$, the…
Based on the recent twisting-tensor approach [T. Opatrny, ArXiv:1408.3265 (2014)], a specific scenario for fast and deep spin squeezing is proposed. Initially the state is subjected to one-axis twisting under optimum orientation, enabling…
Hit-and-Run is a coordinate-free Gibbs sampler, yet the quantitative advantages of its coordinate-free property remain largely unexplored beyond empirical studies. In this paper, we prove sharp estimates for the Wasserstein contraction of…
Runs Batted IN (RBI) records the number of runs a hitter directly drives in during their plate appearances and reflects a batter's ability to convert opportunities into scoring. Because producing runs determines game outcomes, RBI has long…
When an object impacts onto a bed of very loose, fine sand, the drag it experiences depends on the ambient pressure in a surprising way: Drag is found to increase significantly with decreasing pressure. We use a modified penetrometer…
Paper strips, e.g. confetti, descending to the floor begin to rotate around the horizontal axis after a short time. This slows down the vertical velocity compared to free fall and adds a horizontal velocity component. The frequency of…
Making use of experimental and theoretical considerations, in this Letter we deduce a criterion to determine the critical velocity for which a drop impacting a smooth dry surface either spreads over the substrate or disintegrates into…
Basketball is often referred to as "a game of runs." We investigate the appropriateness of this claim using data from the full NBA 2016-17 season, comparing actual longest runs of scoring events to what long run theory predicts under the…
Models in which the number of goals scored by a team in a soccer match follow a Poisson distribution, or a closely related one, have been widely discussed. We here consider a soccer match as an experiment to assess which of two teams is…