Nick Nelson

Research Interests:

• Stellar Magnetic Activity
• Stellar Structure and Evolution
• Integration of Computation into the Physics Classroom

CURE-E Course: Physics for Students of Science and Engineering: Mechanics (PHYS 204A), first introduced with CURE-E Spring 2023

Project Title: The Physics of a Hit

One of the major topics covered in this course is interactions between objects. These can range from very simple, such as a rock falling due to the Earth’s gravity, to very complex, such as the impact between a ball and an object striking it. In baseball the collision between a pitched ball and a bat has been studied extensively but usually in fairly ideal circumstances, such as a stationary bat with a ball projected directly at the bat’s center of percussion (known to players as the “sweet spot”) and with the ball’s velocity directly into the center of the bat’s barrel. This project will seek to expand the study of this collision tomore general cases. Initially, we will attempt to understand the variation in conservation properties (described by the coefficient of restitution) as a function of position of impact along the bat and as thevelocity vector of the bat is directed slightly off the center axis of the bat.

In the longer term, I hope to expand this project to examine other types of sports-related collisions. Possible next steps could include looking at softball-bat collisions in the same way, looking at othersimilar collisions such as those in golf, tennis, or badminton, or potentially even expanding to collisionsbetween a ball and a human body part, such as a soccer ball or football being kicked.