Effects of Air Resistance on a Baseball

by Steven Helak

Submitted : Fall 2009

Baseball is a sport in which any small advantage can make a difference. In the midst of the steroid era, coaches, players, and fans want to eliminate all unfair advantages that occur during the game. However, while everyone worries about clearing the game of drugs, there might be another unfair advantage that no one is talking about. In Colorado the atmospheric pressure is 0.809 atm, while in places of normal elevation from sea level like Boston, the atmospheric pressure is 0.993 atm. Initially, these two values do not seem very far apart so it is easy to suppose that it really does not make a difference. But through the calculations of density, the drag coefficient, acceleration, velocity in both horizontal and vertical components, and finally the position in both of these cities, we can see that there is quite an advantage for one of the cities. The purpose of this project is to compute the integrals for the projectile motion equations that take into account air resistance to quantify this advantage.

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