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[sgcricket]

surely you mean momentum buzz. momentum = mass * velocity

[procricket]

And i like a lighter bat to increase my bat speed but that me..

Get a bat that is right for you all i say

[PedalsMcgrew]

Forgive me for being dense! I'm still not getting this at all 

Quote from Tim:-

"Yes, this is true, but what you are looking for is force. In both these cases, the acceleration, a is huge, and the bike has a lower mass so therefore exerts much less force on the car in front"

So a car with more mass will exert more force on the car in front and move the car forward? If that's the case then why would a heavier bat not exert more force on a ball it strikes? Is it because you would not be able to swing the heavier bat as powerfully as a lighter one therefore negating the difference in mass?

Sorry, I'm really trying not to be difficult here, I did chemistry and biology at school not physics......and it was a long time ago!

Basically I just want someone to tell me whether using a heavier bat is actually having no effect on the distance that I hit the ball! Then I can buy a new bat and be able to justify it!

[jonpinson]

The thread has gone off on an interesting tangent which I think answers more than it seems.

At no point was this thread designed to be a discussion on bat power, yet that has what it has turned in to. People are clearly more concerned by having a bat that in their eyes will hit the ball a long way than a bat which they can actually swing.

Very interesting.

[Number4]

Is this one of your Frankenstein experiments Jonpinson???

[jonpinson]

Nope, it's a cricket bat forum and this is a thread about the theory.

[Number4]

Forgive me...I thought you were enjoying this go off on that different tangent...heheh

[procricket]

It is a good topic Jon i know for not hitting the ball much of the sqaure and use a flightweight bat cmpaired to some of the monsters on here.

Ask most top level coaches Gary Palmer and a few others most of them advocate a nice light bat...

[Buzz]

mass x velocity is momentum, not acceleration

arr ok - but you need that to smack a cricket ball.

[tim2000s]

Forgive me for being dense! I'm still not getting this at all 

Quote from Tim:-

"Yes, this is true, but what you are looking for is force. In both these cases, the acceleration, a is huge, and the bike has a lower mass so therefore exerts much less force on the car in front"

So a car with more mass will exert more force on the car in front and move the car forward? If that's the case then why would a heavier bat not exert more force on a ball it strikes? Is it because you would not be able to swing the heavier bat as powerfully as a lighter one therefore negating the difference in mass?

Sorry, I'm really trying not to be difficult here, I did chemistry and biology at school not physics......and it was a long time ago!

Right....

In this system we have two masses, the ball and the bat. When hitting the ball we are imparting velocity to it. Velocity is directional. We are therefore changing the velocity of the ball. Let's take hitting a straight six as an example.

Going back to first principles, Newton's first law states that a body remains at rest or a constant velocity until a force is applied to it.

Then, applying Newton's second law, a body of mass m subject to a net force F undergoes an acceleration a that has the same direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass, ie, F=ma.

acceleration = (velocity at end - velocity at start)/time

The bat held at the top of the backlift is in a state of rest, and will not move without applying the second law. To move the bat, we have to apply a force.

The force will cause acceleration of the bat to a velocity at which it will hit the ball.

When we strike the ball, lets assume we are trying to hit it as hard as we possibly can, which means, for a given bat mass, m, we need a maximum acceleration, a_max. To achieve a_max we have to apply as much force as we can, f_max.

As a person, you are restricted to f_max being governed by your strength. Acceleration is inversely proportional to mass.

If you therefore use a lighter bat, for f_max, acceleration will be higher and the speed at which you hit the ball will therefore be higher.

What none of this theory covers is your ability to hit the ball however. If you have a lighter bat, you will be able to swing the bat faster, but more importantly, you will also be able to control the swing better as you will require less force (strength) to adjust the path of the bat (which is a function of acceleration).

This therefore goes back to the comment made earlier that when pitches are less reliable in terms of bounce and predictability, a lighter bat is required to allow the batsman to control their shot playing dependent on bounce.

[procricket]

if you time a ball in the middle of a cricket bat and are of a full grown stature then the ball should go well.

The size of the bat in line with the pressing may give your a bigger mass to hit the ball better due to the bigger middle.

the holy grail is a big a bat as possible with the lightest weight with the biggest middlem  no more no less (shame i do not like big profiles though)

[Number4]

But what if you don't use force but instead use gravity with the middle of the handle as a pivot point...Which bat then would move the ball the farthest???

[rp27]

arr ok - but you need that to smack a cricket ball.

dont worry, i got your point

[tim2000s]

But what if you don't use force but instead use gravity with the middle of the handle as a pivot point...Which bat then would move the ball the farthest???

Gravity only acts in one direction, and once you get beyond vertical, gravity has a negative acceleration. As I said, f=ma, and the key point is that a has to be in the direction that you want the object to move. If you pivot around a point, given that f=ma, if a is constant, i.e. g, then greater m will result in greater f.

So if you are only pivoting about a point, then greater mass will impart greater force. We aren't doing this though!

[Number4]

Ok then point taken.. So given that everything is equal apart from bat mass if we hit the ball with the exact same bat speed with both bats then which will hit the ball the farthest???