Sport science: softballs, baseballs, and curve balls

Brains on Universe You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious. Baseball and softball are both amazing sports, especially if you love science. Yeah, there's physics in every pitch. There's high-speed calculations behind every swing of the bat. Every ball was carefully designed and engineered. There's even psychology in the chance we use to psych out our opponents or hype up the home team. It's almost like science is the real MVP. Science, go! Science, go! You make our brains grow! Science, go! Science, go! You make our brains grow! That was Waverly with a very rousing chant for science. You'll hear more chants as we get curious about these sports from curveballs. To what's inside the balls themselves? Is it peanuts and crackerjacks? You're gonna find out. Stay tuned. Did you hear about the Brains On Book Club? We pick a book, we all read it, and then we have a group chat. Plus, we invite the author to join us. We're starting with a story of a dog and cheetah who become best buds. It's called The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan by best-selling author Jasmine Warga. And if you want to join us, sign up for SmartyPass. You'll get to be in the book club, you get discounts on shirts and hats, invites to online hangs with our team, and more. Go to SmartyPass.org to sign up. And if you're already a member, read The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan and send us your questions for the author. Thanks! Brains On! You're listening to Brains On, part of the Brains On universe. I'm Molly Bloom, and my co-host today is Kian from Toronto, Canada. Hi, Kian. Hi, Molly. Today's episode is about baseball. Are you a fan of baseball? Of course. Who's the team you cheer for? Toronto Blue Jays. Woo! Go Blue Jays. Do you play baseball? Yes. I can't wait for my summer league to start. Awesome. What position do you play? Um, first baseman. Oh, that's important. You gotta see a lot of action there. What's your favourite part of playing first base? Getting to, like, let's say someone hits the ball and you catch the ball. When they get out, it just feels like a good feeling. Also, because it's first base, not third. Mmm, yes. It's the first time they come on, so you don't feel like they're ready for anything. And you like hitting too? Yes. Of course. If you were a professional player and you had your own walk-up music, what song would you choose to walk up to? Passo De Fugo by Flame Runner. Does that song get you hyped up? Yeah. So, when you're at first base and someone is throwing you the ball and maybe they don't throw it exactly to you, is it, how do you feel about, like, stretching out to catch it? Um, sometimes it hurts because, like, you're stretching your arm out all the way. You might not be ready for it. You see the ball coming in. Oh, no. Stretch. You like almost have to do the splits sometimes. Yes, but it's always rewarding if you catch it and your foot's on the base. And it's like, yes, I got them out. Well, for today's episode, we thought it would be best to actually go to a game. Hey team, you ready to roll? We don't want to miss the first pitch. And there's our ride. Cool. We get to take your tricked out minivan, the Explorer? Is it going to transform into a rocket or a deep sea submarine? No, just because it's called extremely practical land and ocean rover exploring remote realms doesn't mean we always use it to explore remote realms, like space or the ocean. Most of the time we just do normal rides. Hop in. Yep, so normal. But hey, there's traffic around the stadium, so we're taking a shortcut. A shortcut? Yeah, literally we're going to cut through the surface of the Earth and drill a tunnel to the game. Here we go. Well, so much for normal. Watch out, gophers and earthworms. We're coming through. I love being at the ballpark. Yeah, these are great seeds, Mark. Oh, thanks. I have season tickets for the Eden Prairie Protons, and I wouldn't dare miss them going up against their arch rivals, the Hibbing Higgs Bosons. Up and at them protons, you got this. Yes, strike. That pitcher throws a mean curveball. Speaking of curveballs, time to answer some questions. Starting with this one. Hi, I'm Abel from Inglewood, California, and my question is why do baseballs curve when pitchers throw it? A curveball is a special way to throw a ball. It's when a pitcher tosses a ball and throws a ball at it. It's super sneaky. Imagine you're at that. You're ready to smack that ball out of the park, the pitcher throws it, and it looks like it's heading right for your bat. Come on, ball. Come on. But then it starts to curve and moves out of your range just as you swing. And so you totally miss it. Get it. It's a popular pitch. You see it in both softball and baseball. But how does it work? There's no timely pilot in the ball, suddenly steering it in a different direction. And it's not magnets pulling it down or a giant fan blowing it. The curve comes from how it's thrown. And believe it or not, it's a very simple pitch. It's not magnets pulling it down or a giant fan blowing it. The curve comes from how it's thrown. And believe it or not, the story of how we got this pitch involves a kid and a clamshell. The year was 1863 in the days before cars, telephones, even radio. On a beach in Brooklyn, New York, there was a group of kids playing around. They were tossing clamshells and they figured out they could pretty easily make the flat, round shells curve into air. Whoa, did you see that? It swung to the side. That ain't nothing. Watch this one. Whoa, serious curve on that one. One of the kids was named William Arthur Cummings. And William had a great idea. Wouldn't it be a good joke on the boys if I could get the baseball to curve like that? Well, they will plum near lose their marbles over a throw like that. So William went home, got a ball, and practiced. He tested out different ways of throwing the ball to get that curve. Rats! Needs more spin on it. Hmm, let's try a different angle. He worked on it for years and by the time he was in his late teens, he was pitching for professional baseball teams. Okay, William, let's see if you can make this one do that good old curve. He got so good that his teammates nicknamed him Candy. Which was a popular nickname at the time for someone who was super good at something. Hey Candy, nice throw out there. How'd you get the ball to move like that? Real wild stuff. Oh, thanks. Just a little something I've been working on. It didn't take long for other players to figure out how to do a curve ball. But Candy went down in history as the player to pioneer the throw. He was even inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. So how does the curve ball work? We'll answer that mystery in a minute, but first, another mystery. It's the... Ready for the mystery sound, Keon? Yes. Alright, here it is. What do you think? Maybe shoveling, like trying to take shoveling ice off your driveway. Oh, I like that guess. Like scraping it off the ground with a shovel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that guess. Should we hear it again? Mm-hmm. OK, what...ththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththththth Yeah, because I heard like a motor in the background. Like there's like a car motorcycle in the distance, which I don't think is the sound, but it does make me think that it's outside or something. And I feel like I heard metal at the end. So like someone's using metal, yeah, a saw. I love that idea. Okay, I'm going with saw too. Well, we will hear it again, get another chance to guess and hear the answer at the end of the show. So keep listening. This show is powered by your questions. Yeah, every topic we tackle is suggested by a curious kid. So send us your ideas. Just go to brainson.org slash contact. We also love getting mystery sounds, jokes, drawings, or whatever else you want to send. Just go to brainson.org slash contact to get in touch. Oh, and if you have an idea for a new room at the ever expanding brains on headquarters, we'd love to hear that too. Yeah, we might feature it in our mail bag. So get in touch. And stay curious. Today's episode is sponsored by Every Plate. Are you like me and meal planning seems like an impossible riddle to solve like truly meal planning is something that my brain cannot handle and Every Plate has made this so much easier. Every Plate is the smart approachable meal kit that delivers crave worthy food right to your door without the stress, the extra cost, or mental load. Here are the great things about Every Plate. There are a ton of recipes to choose from. So there's something for everyone, even picky eaters. They're really easy to make. The steps are super simple so your kids can even help you. And dinner can be on the table in 30 minutes. Easy cleanup, straightforward recipes. And the best part is it is cheaper than groceries, half the cost of takeout, and you're not going to have any food waste. Every Plate has been a huge help for me and my family to stick to a budget and have delicious food at the end of a busy day. Try Every Plate and get $2.99 per meal on your first box, plus 10% off for a month. Go to everyplate.com slash podcast and use code BRAINSON 299 to claim your offer. That's code BRAINSON 299 at everyplate.com slash podcast to get 299 per meal on your first box, plus 10% off for a month. Ditch the dinnertime dilemmas with Every Plate. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-brains on. Hey, it's me, Molly. Me, Keon. And me, Mark. And we're at the ballpark having a totally normal day. Photons! Get your fried photons here! Fried photons? I spoke too soon. Yeah, all the snacks at the protons games are based on particle physics. They've got fried photons, quantum cookies, edible electrons, quark dogs. Mmm, I love a fresh quark dog. Hey there, Broski! Over here. I'll take a bag of those fried photons. Coming at ya! Catch! Thanks! Keep the change! Well, it may not be the normal game they snacks, but I love combining sports and science. Me too. In fact, that's why we asked our listeners to make up sporty chance for science, because we can all root for science. Check it out! Science, science! S, C, I. E, N, C, E. Science, yeah! Oh, science, science, let's go! Science, science, let it show! Science, science, it's the best! Let's put ideas through the test. Science, science, number one. This is the plot that I think is a pun. Think, think, think! Put my ideas to the test! Make a hypothesis, which is not a guess! Because science, science, science is a bad stuff! Science! Shout out to science and shout out to ever Elliot, Kai and Lenin for sending us those chance. We'll hear more later on, but first, let's find out more about that tricky throw, the curve ball. Right. We learned that the curve ball was pioneered by Candy Cummings after he saw how clam shells curved when thrown. It turns out, balls can curve too. And both shells and balls curve for the same reason. Air! It works like this. When you throw a ball, it looks like it's flying through empty space. But it's not. It's flying through lots and lots of invisible air molecules. These are tiny pieces of gas, the stuff we breathe. Just because we can't see those air molecules doesn't mean they aren't affecting how the ball moves. In fact, that air is the secret ingredient in making a ball curve. To get a curve, you throw the ball and you put a little spin on it with your fingertips as you let go. So the ball is both flying forward and spinning around. Imagine it's spinning so that the top of the ball is spinning forward in the same direction as the throw. Like the direction a tire spins when it's driving forward. As that top side of the ball spins, it will be pushing forward on the air molecules it meets. And those air molecules will pile up on that side. Meanwhile, the bottom of the ball is spinning away from the direction of the throw. So it pulls the air molecules it meets backward. That makes it so that there are fewer air molecules hanging out on the bottom of the ball. So picture that ball with a pile of air molecules gathered on top of it. And fewer air molecules on the bottom. That creates more pressure up top and less pressure below. That extra pressure on top pushes down on the ball and... It starts to move downward. A curve ball! There's another cool thing helping this ball curve. As the ball spins, it shoots some of the air molecules at the back of the ball upward. Again, think of a car tire. Picture a tire driving forward through the mud. It will shoot some flex of mud upward onto the car as it spins. For the spinning baseball, it's air molecules that are shot upward. And as they go up, they push down on the ball. That's a fundamental law of physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, the action of air molecules getting shot upward creates an opposite reaction of pushing the ball down. This is called the Magnus effect. It also helps a curve ball curve. There are different ways to throw a curve ball. You can make a curve down to the left or right. You can curve a softball or a baseball. It all depends on the way you spin it. But the physics is the same. The spin creates a lot of pressure on one side of the ball and less pressure on the opposite side. And the spin shoots air molecules off one side of the ball, which means those particles push on the ball as they launch away. Both things create a force on the ball that makes it bend and year. No! The Hibbing's Higgs bosons scored another point. They're cramming protons. Come on, protons, come on! Yikes, the protons are down by four runs. Those Higgs bosons really know how to collide a bat with a ball. This is terrible! Boo bosons! Your talent is so tiny, it's subatomic! Come on, Mark. Remember the protons team motto, Stay Positive. Okay, okay, you're right. You're right. They'll find a way to catch up. That's more like it. And speaking of catch up, anyone else ready for a cork dog? Me. Let's go hit the snack stand while Sandin checks the mail bag. Hey, Sandin here in the brains on mailroom. I love when people send us in stuff inspired by past episodes. Like our episode on how trends start. Did you hear that one? Well, one family sent us a really cool follow-up. Here, I'll read it. After listening to your episode on how trends start, Ella thought you'd like to see pictures of a trend on the slopes in Vermont this winter. Kids are sticking gummy candy to their ski helmets and then snacking on the candies throughout the day. I know kids are doing it at a couple mountains in Vermont this winter. Not sure how widespread it is. Ella thinks it's definitely a trend Mark and Sandin could get on board with. That's so cool. And they sent us a picture of Ella in a ski outfit in the snow with tons of little gummies stuck to the top of her helmet. Yeah, this is a trend that 100% Mark and I would be into. Gummies on the go? I mean, who wouldn't love that? That's a great idea. Ella, thanks so much for sending in this trend report. If you've spotted a cool new trend, let us know about it. Go to brainson.org slash contact to fill us in. Alright, thanks. That's it for the mail bag. Later. You can get brains on Smash Boom Best and Forever Ago without the ad breaks by joining SmartiePass. Plus, you get access to our book club and more. Just head to SmartiePass.org to become a member. Thanks. S-C-I-E-N-C-E Science is the one for me. Physics, chemistry, astronomy, and engineering. Science is the best subject you'll ever be hearing. Science, science, you're the best. Science, science, never rests. Science, science, yes you can. You discovered Adam's man. Science, science, we love you. If we need you, you're the clue. I see, I see. What do you see? I see a virus looking at me. Hello, Bonjour. It's nice to meet you. You're looking at the scientist that's going to beat you. It's Molly with Mark and Keon. Such amazing chance from you, our wonderful listeners. Huge thanks to Philippa, Bronte, Eno, Lucia, Misha, and Auden for sending those in. And we are back at the stadium talking baseball and softball. And having a mostly normal, sometimes not so normal, they add the ball. Watch out, I'm coming your way. I gotcha, little ball. Aim for my glove. Yes, gotcha. A talking ball? Okay, forget normal. Weird is more fun anyway. Oh, thanks for catching me. Are you kidding me? You're a home run hit by the Eden Prairie Protons. I'm honored just to have you in my glove. Plus, now the protons are tied. They could win this. We could win this. Hooray! I hope they can do it. Great timing talking baseball because we were just about to answer this question. Hi, my name is Titus and I'm from Alexandria, Louisiana. My question is what are baseball made of? You think you could help us out? Sure, but I don't really know what's inside me. That's okay. I know all about the insides of baseballs. Plus, I brought my X-ray scanner. X-ray what? X-ray scanner. It's a special tool that lets me scan something with an X-ray beam so I can see the insides. I usually use it at ball games to scan boxes of cracker jacks so I can see what prize they have in them. Okay, hold still, ball. This will only tickle a lot. It does tickle a lot. I can see everything inside of this ball. It's got a lot of different layers. Cool. What's at the very center? You see that? The round core in the middle of the ball? That's a material called cork. That cork is wrapped in rubber and then all of that is tightly wrapped in a whole lot of yarn. And lastly, it's covered in white leather and sewn together with red stitches. Whoa. So that stuff at the very core of the ball is cork? Like the stuff you use to plug a bottle of wine? Precisely. It's a lightweight material that comes from a cork tree. And you see that layer of red stuff around the cork? That's the rubber. Like what bouncy balls are made of? Yeah, but you wouldn't want your whole baseball made of rubber. It would be too bouncy. Too many home runs. The game wouldn't be as fun. So the cork and rubber center is wrapped in something else. Yarn. Oh, the yarn makes the ball a little less bouncy. Exactly. And then you hold it all together with a white leather cover and get this. There are exactly 108 stitches on a regulation baseball. The rules for an official Major League baseball are very strict about how these balls are made. So every ball is equal. That only seems fair. In the old days, like over 100 years ago, the center of the ball was often made from the rubber of old melted shoes. Shoeball? Wild. And people made their own baseballs to use in the game. But that led to problems. Some balls would be super bouncy. These were called lively balls. Other balls would be hard to hit far. Those were called dead balls. But as baseball got more popular, teams eventually agreed to all use one standard ball. What about soft balls? They are not actually soft. And they don't have a core like a baseball does. They're all made of one solid material. Sometimes it's a mix of rubber and cork or a mix of a material called polyurethane. Cool stuff. Now let's turn off this X-ray skinometer. Did you guys see my inside? Yep. At your center, there's cork and rubber. Then that's wrapped in yarn. And it's all covered with leather and stitches. Neat. I'm super cool inside. Oh look, someone's running past third. Come on, come on, you can do it. They're almost at home plate. Come on, Slate, come on. They did it. The Proton's got another run. They're gonna win the game. Woohoo! Yeah buddy! Baseball and softball are sports full of science. Like a curveball. That's a throw that uses spin to make the ball bend its path. It was dreamed up by a kid who liked throwing clamshells. He later brought the pitch to professional baseball. Baseballs are made of a cork and rubber core that's wrapped in yarn and held together by leather and stitches. Softballs are all one material with no special in our core. That's it for this episode of Braids On. This episode was produced by me, Molly Blue, Mark Sanchez, and Sandman Totten. It was sound designed by Mark Sanchez who also wrote our theme music. We had voice acting by Andy Doucette, Vicki Lentour, Felix Lulou, Karris, and Coco. Special thanks to Hannah Barker, Shadi Katirai, and Kian's family, Ava Aiden, and Naesan. Also, Ken Taborsky at Code of the North for all of his website help. Okay, Kian, are you ready for that mystery sound again? Yes. Here it is. Last time we thought a shoveling ice or a saw. Do you have any new thoughts? No, I'm going to stick with sawing wood. Sawing wood? Okay. So for some reason to me it sounded like an apple. So I'm going to say someone's sawing an apple because maybe they're trying to make like a special squirrel feeder made from an apple. Your guess makes more sense. Should we see if we're close? Yeah. Okay, here's the answer. Hi, my name's Gabby and I'm from Boston. The sound you just heard was me cutting black walnut wood with a handsaw. Oh my gosh. Kian, that was 100% correct. Yay. That's so impressive. Do you like make stuff with whatever? Um, no. No. You just put the hints together and you were like, this is it. It's someone's sawing wood. Nice work. Great ears. Now it's time for the brain's honor roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives. Ashwin from Diamond Park, California. Miles and Finnegan from Portland, Oregon. Charlie and Ellie from Seattle. Chloe from Bennington, New Hampshire. Walker from Lake Oswego, Oregon. Julia and Tessa from St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Idara from Arkansas. Elizabeth from Bayside, Wisconsin. Arlo from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Josh from Corona, California. Maria from Cassin, Minnesota. William from Austin, Texas. Elena and Mary from Bardstown, Kentucky. Ava from Menlo Park, California. Micah and Levi from Morton, Illinois. Reagan from Haver, Montana. Alec from Redmond, Washington. Lenny and Geffen from Long Island City, New York. Bowie and Ren from Seattle. Violet from Cochrane, Alberta. Link from Pasadena, California. Edison from Kuala Lumpur. Finley and Luca from Waitsville, Vermont. Evelyn from Sturgeon County, Alberta. Violet from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Sierra from Alameda, California. Jocelyn from Meford, Ontario. Maron from Calgary, Alberta. Stella from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Thea and Ray from Long Lake, Minnesota. Nora from St. Louis. M.K. from India. Marie from Changzhou, China. Addy and Teddy from Calisbo, Montana. Luca, Luna and Levi from Claremont, California. Shane and Avery from Belmont, California. Cammie and Avery from Paoli, Pennsylvania. Riso from Diney, Vietnam. Amani from Phoenix. Kenneth Jedediah from Irving, Texas. O from Calgary, Alberta. Casey from Dundas, Ontario. Sebastian from Stratford, upon Avan, United Kingdom. Lynn from Singapore. Alston from Kuala Lumpur. Eliana from Dallas, Texas. Leo from Odense, Denmark. Kai from Draper, Utah. Everly from Langley Township, British Columbia. Kala from Tennessee. Isla from Toronto. May from Beverly, Massachusetts. Riley and Theo from Olen, New York. Ramona from Morro Bay, California. Maisie from Lewis Center, Ohio. Amelia from Gilbert, Arizona. Esther from Arkansas Clark from Seattle. Aurora and Lena from Calgary, Alberta. Ada from DeLand, Florida. Logan from Hawthorne, California. Nitzan and Hadass from Waterville, Maine. Felix from Victoria, British Columbia. And Ugar and Defne from London, England. Riso from London, England. Riso from London, England. Riso from London, England. We'll be back next week with more baseball science. Thanks for listening.