Bats, Balls and the Wind 2
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Pressure is the name of the game when it comes to professional baseball. Hey, I'm talking about air pressure! Hi. I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

I talked to Robert Adair, author of The Physics of Baseball , Professor Emeritus of Physics at Yale University and the only person ever to hold the position of Physicist of the National League. Adair says that changes in air pressure can make the difference between a home run and fly ball.

"If you have a thunderstorm on the horizon and the barometer's dropped low, the ball's going to go further."

In fact, says the former Physicist to the National League, for every inch the barometer falls, a batted ball can travel an extra four feet.

"Four foot further will increase the probability of hitting a home run byŠ I would, say, guess roughlyŠ six or seven percent." (not completely trivial)

At mile-high Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, the average air pressure will be ??? inches lower than sea level. Does that make a difference?

"Yeah, that's a big effect."

How big? How far would a 400-foot sea-level blast carry at Coors?

"It turns out for complicated reasons having to do with subtleties of fluid dynamics; to calculate how much further a baseball goes is tricky. I would guess about 425 feet, but that will make the probability of hitting a home run 50 percent greater. Hitters like Coors Field; it's tough on the pitchers."

Tomorrow, Professor Adair will tell us why some pitchers like the wind The Weather Notebook is sponsored by Subaru. Check out more on barometric pressure and baseball on www. weathernotebook.com