building the ultimate baseball bat

Some aluminum bat construction returns the ball back along the path it was delivered (I have had first hand experience observing and analyzing the why of the phenomena.)

Those are banned for pitcher safety, not for length of hit ball.

It definitely does at midrange bat velocities and it definitely doesn't beat some woods in high bat velocity. (If you know how a bat physically responds, and the ball, that makes sense.)

Variable E sheathed composite, geometrically shaped and tuned to the particular batter's dimensions, reaction time, and force capacity.

"Swinging" machines, unless having fairly complicated controls with feedback, do not replicate the critical parameters of the approximate-optimal human swing - except to the "expert" gorillas who think a bat is a fancy club. You may have some difficulty in getting a consistent strike that optimizes the bat.

Thanks for the reply. We plan to use an MLB batter and do the "test" with 10+ pitches. Our goal isn't to determine EXACTLY the forces at play, but want to illustrate the point that the bat sets limits on the players and that if they had the choice, they would use something else

- or would they? We want to also answer the question is a corked bat really could help. This is for a TV audience. Thanks again for the info... any more posts are greatly appreciated. Eric

Talk to the folks at Easton sports about their recent experiences with carbon nanotubes.

Apparently the first gen of bats made with CN were so good that baseball decided to start regulating bats like the PGA did with golf clubs. Forced Easton the reduce the amount of nanotubes in the bats and Easton had to recall and replace all the Stealth bats they'd sold...at $300 apiece. So goes the story anyway.

There is some useful web-accessible material. The most exciting finding that I saw was the importance of bat resonance modes in transfering kinetic energy onto the ball. If the bat deflects in the line of flight, then springs back to an egg shape cross-section slower than the usual rebound i.e.at around 1600 Hz, more energy gets to the ball. An elastic material that won't dimple is evidently desirable. The stiffest is steel, then aluminum then glass then wood then rubber. But wood can dimple, losing energy in the process. So a wood shell with a hard glass cover or a thick rubber cover might do well. Placing a good fraction of the mass near the ball's impact point seems to be sensible too.

Good luck

Brian Whatcott Altus OK