This is a good one. It's not all that funny or whitty but it might make you say hummm.
Yale physicist named Robert Adair did a study on the possibility of hitting a 90 mile an hour fastball and here's what he found (Bear with me to the end).
It takes 0.4 or 4 tenths of a second for a baseball to travel the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate.
It takes 0.05 or 5 hundredths of a second for the batter to decide whether or not to swing at the pitch.
It takes 0.2 or 2 tenths of a second for the batter to decide where the ball is going and how to swing the bat.
It takes 0.2 or 2 tenths of a second for the batter to swing and hit the ball.
If you're doing your math, you'll see that it takes a batter 0.05 or 5 hundredths of a second longer to swing at a fastball than it does for the ball to pass the plate.
In fact, professor Adair found that the margin for error is so small, the batter could actually close his eyes after the first 5 hundredths of a second, and have the exact same chance of hitting the ball.
His conclusion? Hitting a 90mph fast pitch is physically impossible.
It's funny how much faith we put in science and statistics, taking them as absolute and faultless truth.
We trust science to tell us what’s real and what constitutes truth, yet time and time again we see science failing to live up to its own standards. We can all turn on a TV and see a batter hit a 90 or even a 100 mph pitch, but science tells us it's impossible. Science says there is no such thing as God, but I see the results of his labor every day. Should I lose faith just because science says so? Should every major league batter quit hitting fastballs because physics says it’s impossible? I don't think so.
I know this theory doesn't prove there's a God, nothing can do that but faith. But it does prove that science can be wrong, and for the record I don’t think God has made a mistake yet. Open your eyes and believe what you see. Use logic, use faith, and use your heart; you will find the truth.
Thanks for letting me stand on my soapbox for a few minutes. I hope to be back to wearing it on my head again next week. Have a great day!
Thanks to pastor Matt Manning for the idea and the inspiration.
I've also seen that it's actually harder (science-wise) to hit a fast-pitch softball than the baseball, due to a couple of factors.
ReplyDeleteNothing is impossible, unless we believe it is. Until then, all things are good.
Couldn't have said it better myself Dean. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJust recently I’ve read the book “Why Does E=MC(2)” The book reinforced my belief the theories of science are just that, theories that can be disproven and/or expanded on at any moment. Science is not the final answer because the final answer has not been found by science. Faith is all you have and well, all you need.
ReplyDeleteJeff Greene
I firmly believe in the separation of church and state, but not church and science. It seems to me that out of habit, people doggedly go to their traditional faith, or science corners and grouse about those on the other side as though they are the enemy of either God, or logic.
ReplyDeleteNot all scientists believe there is no God and not all people of faith dismiss science as irrelevant, in terms of the soul. Although I am not now a member, by choice, of any religion, per se, I was lucky enough to have been raised in one that taught me that religion and science are mutually compatible. Each benefits and informs the other. Science can explain the physical source and procedure that may create a miracle, e.g., and faith can explain the genesis (no pun intended) of the occurrence of the miracle. What's so sacrilegious, or illogical about that?
The religious/science fight to me involves simple, petty bigotry on each side. Just because it has been a given for generations, well, centuries, for those from traditional religious, and academic backgrounds to distrust and trivialize the other side, does not mean the constant bickering and "proving" on each side must continue ad infinitum.
Each entity has so much to offer. Why not level the walls of misconception and bigotry and just embrace what the other side has to give?
Wow Gabrielle! Great comment. I agree completely. In fact I find it almost funny how often one seems to prove the other while trying to disprove it. One day science and religion will hold hands and I hope I am there to see it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chuck, and I like your hand-in-hand visual...
ReplyDeleteI plan to join you on that big day!