Baseball is the all-American sport and it is steeped in time-honored traditions. Baseball has changed over time, with the evolution of uniforms from scratchy wool to modern designs and the introduction of helmets and other protective gear. The baseball bat has also changed, with the crack of a wooden bat giving way to the ping of aluminum in today's little league, high school and college games. Those aluminum bats may hit farther and faster than wood depending on who is swinging them.
Speed and Distance
Aluminum bats can, depending on the skill of the batter, hit a baseball farther, because they can hit the ball at a higher speed. Despite the widespread common knowledge that aluminum bats hit balls faster, there have been few studies documenting this effect, reports Daniel Russell, Ph.D., of the Kettering University program of Applied Physics. The one well-documented field-conditions study on aluminum bats and hitting speed determined that aluminum bat performance varied widely depending on their manufacturer and design, but generally resulted in ball speeds up to 8 miles per hour faster than that of wooden bats, Russell reports.
Faster Swing
One of the reasons that aluminum bats may hit a ball faster, and consequently farther, than wooden bats is that a skilled batter can swing an aluminum bat faster. The center-of-mass on most aluminum bat designs is closer to the handle than on wooden bats. Having this weight-balance point closer to the pivot-point where the batter holds the bat handle makes it easier to swing than when the weight is centered farther out toward the end of the bat. A faster bat swing lobs the ball farther and faster.
Kinetic Energy
Aluminum is more elastic than wood, so an aluminum bat transmits more kinetic energy back to the ball than a wooden bat, according to science writer Don Glass of Indiana Public Media. When a baseball collides with a wooden bat, the wood dents and stays dented, soaking up much of the energy of the hit. When an aluminum bat strikes a baseball, the aluminum bends inward then springs outward again like a spring, sending that energy back into the baseball, which then flies farther and faster than it would if struck by a wooden bat under the same conditions.
Sweet Spot
Athletes refer to the area of their bat that results in the most effective hits with the least vibrating sting back to the hands as the sweet spot. Researchers have found that the sweet spot in wooden and aluminum bats are about the same, Russell reports. However, balls hit outside of the sweet spot on an aluminum bat are significantly faster than those hit outside the sweet spot on a wooden bat. This means that even on a poor hit, a baseball is likely to go faster and farther when hit with an aluminum bat than with a wooden bat.
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