Physics of sports video
Over the last three weeks we have been working on our physics of sports videos. Our intent was to create a video explaining the physics behind a sport. My team decided that we were going to do a video on hitting a homerun. The other information given from this video was to help the San Marin sports department get a better understanding of a sport. Further more allowing them to improve their performance as a team, and as individuals. The first thing we did after coming up with our game plan was creating a story board and script for our project. When that was finished we began filming, which was difficult. You had to get all the correct angles and the ball in the cameras view. Then as a group we figured out the calculation, or our physics concepts, with a little help from Mr.Williams. After getting the filming and calculations finished we had the daunting task of actually creating out video. I started working on the video until we decided it would be best if we talked about what we would use in the video and how it was all going to play out. This video has given me a new way to analyze and perfect my swing.
Concepts
Potential Energy- Is the energy an object has at a certain position and is calculated by multiplying mass times height times acceleration due to gravity. In our case we had to figure out the potential energy of the bat which was 4.425 Joules.
Acceleration- Which is the rate of change in an objects motion and is calculated by dividing the change in velocity and the change in time. The acceleration of the baseball bat was 22.41 m/s^2.
Force- Can be described as a push or pull and is calculated by multiplying mass time acceleration. In our case we were trying to find the force of the collision of the bat against the ball so we had to use the equation mv=ft or momentum=impulse. The force of the bat against the ball is 6,525 Newton's.
Reflection
This project was a difficult task at hand with many new learning opportunities. Our overall video worked out well, and in my opinion, was a success. Something new I learned about myself was that, I am really good at video editing a putting together different clips. When I was doing this i just kept getting ideas of songs and pro players to put in here. One other thing I learned about myself is that I really did like learning about the physics of hitting a dinger. All this information about how much force is being applied to the bat and just think of what luck the pitcher would have if the ball hit him, is awesome. Some things I could have done better were with the video itself like different things in different points and all that good stuff. I also should have helped out with the equations more. I will hopefully learn how to make a better movie for future projects. Another thing I need to work on is accepting that some group members aren't always on the same page with everything and to sometimes just let it go. For our next project i plan to make a video of the car working. Also i want to help out with the equations part more so i have a better understanding before our tests. I hope to carry my newly attained knowledge through further projects.