quote:Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
My point is this.
Draw yourself a diagram from the side view, where the gun is up in the stands behind home plate. Plot the pitcher's release point, the catcher's mitt location, the path of the ball and the angle from the gun to the ball at various points along the ball's path.
Remember that due to g the ball's path will be parabolic, not linear. So, as the ball reaches home the angle of the gun vis a vis the velocity vector of the ball's instaneous direction will be greater.
The gun will read only the sine of the angle, not the full velocity vector.
So yes, you will get fall off in your MPH readings as the ball approaches home, but no, the ball is not actually losing speed at that rapid rate. Maybe a little, but not that much.
A 2-seamer will read a greater drop not because of air cushion effect, because that is negligible. The issue is that if some of the ball's forward momentum is transferred to sideways or downward movement, again you will get a resulting reduction in the forward vector. For curves the effect will be even more pronounced.
Or, you can read the link I supplied that explains how they come up with those numbers. It has nothing to do with a radar gun.
They take video from the side view at 30 frames per second. They measure the distance the ball travels in a frame. They compare the distance right out of the hand to the distance at home plate. It becomes simple math.