March 13, 2018
ALSO KNOWN AS NOLAN RYAN'S CHANGE-UP...:
Relativistic Baseball: What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? (Ellen McManis, What If?)
The answer turns out to be "a lot of things", and they all happen very quickly, and it doesn't end well for the batter (or the pitcher). I sat down with some physics books, a Nolan Ryan action figure, and a bunch of videotapes of nuclear tests and tried to sort it all out. What follows is my best guess at a nanosecond-by-nanosecond portrait
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2018 5:17 AM