To soften the blow of the sabot, the plate rides on four pneumatic shocks. "That arrestor plate is, in my opinion, kind of a cool design," Smith says. The air cannon blast ejects both the sabot and the baseball from its barrel, so Smith designed an arrestor plate to stop the sabot and allow the ball to fly free. The stability the sabot provides is the key to hitting the sweet spot and accurately testing the pop in a bat, Smith says. The sabot fits precisely within the cannon's tube, and even at that crazy speed it can keep a baseball along a straight path with little spin or deviation. Since the bat is stationary and there's no batter swinging it, Smith's setup must accelerate the baseball to a speed that combines both the velocity of a major league pitch and the bat speed of a major league hitter: about 150 miles per hour. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playįirst, the scientists place a baseball onto a polycarbonate sabot and load it into the cannon.
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