Posted by: SteveT () on Mon Mar 20 16:50:51 2000

"So if two players swing with the same velocity and the same bat, won't the heavier player hit the ball further?"

No. It may seem that way, but beware what your eyes tell you- they can mislead. Likely the heavier player has better batspeed at conctact.

How do you know the big kids you're comparing aren't swinging as fast? Did you measure their batspeed?

The body's mass plays no role in how far the ball travels except in terms of how it generates batspeed. If you get the ball away from the sweet spot, then your grip will affect it but not otherwise.

1/2 MV squared is not the formula you want. That is the formula for the kinetic energy of a system and does not apply directly in this case as the collision is inelastic. Suggest reading "the physics of baseball" by Robert Adair, as it explains all this stuff quite well.