Baseball related science project ideas?

What kind of science? Biology, Chemistry, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
What kind of science? Biology, Chemistry, etc.

It can be any kind of science, it can even be mostly math.

We did a Consumer Science Baseball Science Fair Project one year.
"Uniform Cleanliness?!"
We took multiple white uniform pants and stained the appropriate areas of the pants with grass, clay/mudd, red or purple gatorade (players choice), and mustard and washed in a variety of detergents. The pants and stains where the controls and the detergents were the variables. You can also vary temps of water or keep that as a control, your choice. Then graphed the degree of cleanliness and had them displayed side by side for comparison. You can also have a panel of cleanliness "Judges". We changed detergents after the experiment!
You did not mention what grade or age? We did this in elementary school. (Hint: Buy smallest T-ball pants)

We did another project in high school that went all the way to State but it was not baseball related. It was public science/health obesity. It was very unusual and entertaining because it dealt with the issue of whether or not people lied about their weight on their drivers licences. The state we were living in at the time asked for the info. when people applied for a drivers license. We were surprised at how many agreed to participate in our project. Yes, most weighed more than the license stated, some by over 50lbs, many by 20lbs but contrary to what you may have guessed, it was the guys who fibbed the most! There were also several people who weighed less than what their license stated, go figure!

My friend tried to figure out the farthest any MLB player can actually hit a baseball, but it ended up just figuring out the averages for the major leagues. It was for physics, I think he got a B on the assignment. I thought the first idea was really cool but it sure takes a whole lot of work.

Does the sac bunt led to more/less runs/wins; how abut the intentional walk? Do more runs score from 1st with no outs than score from 2nd with 1 out? What % of runners will score from 2nd with no outs, compared to runners at 3rd with 1 out? Does one big inning account for more wins than scoring in more innings?
I recently read "Moneyball" (slow adapter) that inspired some of these thoughts.

If you want to do something REALLY interesting, look into the work that is being done by Dr. Andrews at ASMI. He is one of the pioneers of Tommy John Surgery, has developed "biomechanic" screening for athletes & programs to prevent injury to throwing arm, as well as rehab programs. I'm sure they would help you with enough info to take your project to State!

http://www.asmi.org/

http://www.theandrewsinstitute.com/

http://www.americanbaseball.org/research.html

Ever heard of the "gyroball"? Here's some info on the "newest pitch":

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec06/gyroball_12-20.html

Are you talking elementary school science projects? When my son was in 6th grade, his science project dealt with corked bats....what material made the ball travel the farthest. He took three bats and stuffed them with cork, sawdust and rubber balls...then tested them out "scientifically". It was the only time he didn't mind doing a science project!

My son did a similar project. Batting tee, 2 dozen baseball, 1/2 marked with a red dot the other blue, Aluminum bat, wood bat, composit bat, measuring tape, open field. Hit the red dots with the wood bat, then blue dots with metal measuring each. The blue dots with composit and red dots with metal, then 3rd set red dots with wood and blue with composit.

I think he then did individual graphs and then combined averages...I belive it was jr high.

I was a science fair judge last year at my daughter's junior high school. One very cool baseball project was testing the time it took to run to first base - running through the bag, diving head first into the bag and stopping at the bag.

What made the project cool was that they had used a video camera to tape the runners and then did a frame by frame comparison. By looking at the fence behind the runners you could compare progress and see where the dipping to dive cost them a frame. Graphically quite interesting. You would need a digital video camera and a package like iMovie on the mac to do this project.

My son used the weighted balls and tested his velocity each week. A friend's son compared distances the ball traveled with different kinds of bats.

This is for Grade 9. I thought of maybe doing it on how "highlight reel" plays on Defense affect the momentum of the game. All I need is a not too complacated way to figure out momentum, and a control....

What postition do you play?

in the hitting forum, there was some very scientific issues discussed, bernoulli, and the travel of the ball in flight, aluminum v wood, velocity issues, etc.

Search those terms, maybe, and it might bring up those discussions.

There is some dog poop in there, though, so don't step in that.

How about making a drug that will enhance strength significantly, postpone some normal effects of growing older, and be almost undiscoverable to most tests? What? That's already been done? Sorry.

My son did one with different bats, high end
bats vs lower end bats, did the higher cost bats really hit the ball further?

And a friend did one with different balls and
if if made a differece on how fast they could be thrown, with the different seams, and cork
size.

What makes a curveball curve, a sinker sink, a slider slide, etc.....

Gives you multiple areas to discuss: friction, etc..

Can still use video, as well as other visual type demonstrations.

My son once did an experiment to test the rebound effect of baseballs at different temperatures.

A dozen room temp balls, a dozen balls in the freezer, and a dozen balls in the oven for two hours at 200 degrees.

Release them all from the same height onto a concrete floor, and measure the height of the bounce. Best way to measure is to videotape the bounces against a background with a measured grid.

Then take the data and plot the average bounce for each temperature, the variation, std dev, etc.

Sure A for an 8th grade project.

Son did one in 7th grade - Does a curve ball really curve? Same formula for lift under wings of an airplane. Combined it with a video and interview with his pitching coach - a lot of fun and a good grade.

quote:

Originally posted by Homerun04:
What postition do you play?

OF,1B. Thank you everyone for your ideas, please keep them coming.

Simple one. Compare wood bat to aluminum. Try to figure out what one makes the ball go further.

I love these ideas, too! I think I might steal one or two of them for the science fair projects that my daughters must perform this year...THANKS!!!!

Some additional thoughts:

http://www.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/talks.html