Tag: astrophysics

How far can we throw a ball on other worlds?

January 26, 2022

Continuing with the theme of interplanetary baseball, yesterday, the World and Science Twitter account shared this captivating video graphic, originally created by Dr. James O’Donoghue. The graphic shows how far a ball would travel on the surface of other celestial bodies in our solar system, assuming said ball is thrown at a speed of 45 mph and at a 45-degree angle. A ball thrown on Mars, it seems, would travel more than twice as far as a ball thrown on Earth. A particularly interesting data point is for Pluto, where the same thrown ball would travel a whopping 667 meters!

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Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses baseball on Mars

January 24, 2022

The concept of interplanetary baseball is a totally fascinating one. In this clip, Neil deGrasse Tyson fields a question about the physics of baseball if it were to be played on Mars. Not only does Tyson answer the question, he demonstrates his own knowledge about the game — I particularly like the idea about allowing a batter to go to second base if hit by a pitch that would have been ball four.

Will we ever see baseball played on Mars? Perhaps not in my lifetime, but the idea is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.