Trying to Catch a 1,000 MPH Baseball - Smarter Every Day 247

TL;DR

Smarter Every Day builds and tests a supersonic baseball cannon and examines the impact of a supersonic baseball on various objects, including gloves.

Transcript

• Hey, it's me Destin. Welcome back to "Smarter Every Day." This video is awesome because we're finally going to shoot it at stuff. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, in a previous episode of "Smarter Every Day," we fulfilled an important dream of mine by building a baseball cannon that could shoot a baseball faster than the speed of sou... Read More

Key Insights

• 🐎 Building a supersonic baseball cannon successfully and verifying its speed is a significant achievement.
• ✊ The power and kinetic energy of a supersonic baseball are enormous and can cause serious damage to objects.
• ⚾ Regular baseball gloves are not designed to withstand the impact of a supersonic baseball.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Smarter Every Day verify the speed of the baseball from the supersonic cannon?

To verify the speed, Smarter Every Day used high-speed cameras and captured schlieren imagery, which revealed a Mach cone in front of the baseball, indicating it was moving faster than the speed of sound.

Q: How did the supersonic baseball impact the boxing target?

The video shows that the baseball went through the boxing target, causing significant damage to the target and ripping off the cover of the baseball.

Q: Did the gloves successfully stop the supersonic baseball?

No, both the basket weave and the H weave gloves failed to stop the supersonic baseball. The baseball went through the gloves, with the basket weave glove even catching fire upon impact.

Q: How many gloves did it take to stop the supersonic baseball?

The supersonic baseball was able to go through all nine stacked gloves, indicating that multiple gloves are not sufficient to stop it.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Smarter Every Day successfully builds and verifies a supersonic baseball cannon capable of shooting a baseball faster than the speed of sound.

• The team tests the power of the supersonic baseball by shooting it at objects such as a boxing target, gloves, and multiple stacked gloves.

• The video reveals that the supersonic baseball is capable of going through multiple gloves and causing significant damage.