Robert K. Adair

Blending scientific fact and sports trivia, Robert Adair examines what a baseball or player in motion does-and why. How fast can a batted ball go? What effect do stitch patterns have on wind resistance? How far does a curve ball break? Who reaches first base faster after a bunt, a right- or left-handed batter? The answers are often surprising -- and always illuminating.This newly revised third edition considers recent developments in the science of sport such as the neurophysiology of batting, bat vibration, and the character of the "sweet spot." Faster pitchers, longer hitters, and enclosed stadiums also get a good, hard scientific look to determine their effects on the game.Filled with anecdotes about famous players and incidents, The Physics of Baseball provides fans with fascinating insights into America's favorite pastime.

Although modern physics surrounds us, its concepts constantly referred to in every newspaper, even educated nonscientists find the subject intimidating in the extreme. Most attempts to explain physics to general readers are either obscured by masses of mathematics or gross oversimplificationswritten by laymen. Here at last is a comprehensive--and comprehensible--account of particles, fields and cosmology written by a working physicist not burdened by the weight of ponderous scientific notation. Robert K. Adair gives us a feel for how physicists think about what assumptionsmust be made to simplify impossibly complex relationships between objects, on what scale the problem needs to be treated, how measurements are made, and what the interplay between theory and experiment is.Adair gently guides the reader through the ideas of particles, fields, relativity, and quantum mechanics. He explains the great discoveries of this century, which have caused a revolution in how we view the universe, in logical, simple terms not requiring anything beyond high school algebra tocomprehend. He has performed the difficult task of predigesting complex concepts to permit the layman access to what appears to be an arcane discipline. He captures the flavor of the joy of discovery at the heart of research.

21 pages in English.