PhysOrg:
Lloyd Smith, an associate professor at Washington State
University's School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering,
recently investigated three questions of relevance to major
league baseball: Can a baseball be hit farther with a corked
bat? Is there evidence that the baseball is livelier today than
in earlier years? Can storing baseballs in a temperature- or
humidity-controlled environment significantly affect home-run
production? Smith, working with colleagues from the University
of Illinois and Kettering University, tested all three premises
at his Sports Science Laboratory on the Pullman campus. "I've
got the cool machine that can do the tests," said Smith. He has
published descriptions of his experiments and their results in
his
article
"Corked Bats, Juiced Balls, and Humidors: The Physics of
Cheating in Baseball" in this month's
American Journal of Physics.
