Sun April 15, 2012 The science of baseball (plus extras)
Baseball season is well-underway. For St. Louis Public Radio’s
Véronique LaCapra, that means it’s time to talk about the
science behind America’s national pastime. Washington University
aerospace engineer David Peters was happy to join in. Audio cut
1: interview with Peters Audio cut 2: web extra, on catching
Audio cut 3: web extra, on lefties Transcript of audio cut 1:
PETERS: I'm a baseball fan from day one. I was at Stan Musial's
last game here in St. Louis. Turns out I was in Cincinnati and
happened to go to the game when Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's
record. I was at the game where Roger Maris's home run record
was broken by Mark McGwire. I've just been a baseball fan,
always have been. LACAPRA: I can imagine that there’s a lot of
physics involved in pitching. Can you talk about some of the
main types of pitches — the curve ball — the physics behind
them? PETERS: The basic principle's called the Bernoulli
principle. And the Bernoulli principle says tha