A1_6 The Ultimate Curveball

Abstract

Drag effects play an important effect in everyday life, but is most noticeable in ball games such as baseball and football. In this paper, we determine the initial velocity and rotational velocities required for a ball to come back to the thrower. This is done by considering the Magnus effect. We find that these properties are proportional to each other, but the relationship between the object’s mass and radius plays a bigger role than expected.