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JesseLefler

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Blog Entries posted by JesseLefler

  1. JesseLefler
    What happens to the ball depends on what spin was put on it. This all has to do with the fact that there is drag force, or air resistance. A curve ball is created when a ball is spinning. The faster flowing air under the ball creates less pressure, which forces the ball to dive or break. Baseball would be a dull game without drag force because there would be no curves, sliders, or knuckle balls. So how exactly do pitchers throw the curve balls? The pitcher holds onto the ball with his middle and index fingers on or next to the stitching on the ball and they place their thumb directly beneath. As they throw the ball, they snap their wrist in a turning motion, like turning a door knob, to make the ball spin in the direction of the throw. The stitching on the ball as well as the rotation of the ball, causes higher air pressure on one side of the ball. The higher velocity difference puts more stress on the air flowing around the bottom of the ball. The stress causes the air to break away from the balls surface sooner. Conversely, the air at the top of the spinning ball, subject to less stress due to the lower velocity difference and can hang onto the ball's surface longer before breaking away. Therefore curveballs do most of their curving in the last quarter of their trip.
       
  2. JesseLefler
    In 2014 Tom Brady and the patriots were caught using under inflated footballs in order to gain a competitive advantage when throwing the ball. The deflated ball would make it easier for the quarterback, Tom Brady, to grip the ball which in turn would allow him to throw harder and more accurately. Although an under inflated ball won't be able to travel as far as an appropriately inflated football, if the coaching staff knew what was going on they could base their game plan around short passes and running the ball so that the under inflated football would have no disadvantages for the team that knew what was going on. Also, since under inflated footballs are far easier to grip and hold onto, the Patriots would have far less fumbles when running the ball. The final advantage helps out receivers the most since under inflated balls are easier to grab it would be far easier to catch the ball. Especially if a spectacular one handed catch may be necessary if a poorly placed pass is thrown their way. When a ball is fully inflated, unless you have extremely large hands it is nearly impossible to make a one handed catch. The only disadvantage that might come from this is that the kicker and/or punter would not be able to kick the ball nearly as far because the transfer of energy from the kickers leg to the ball would be far less than if the ball is fully/over inflated.
  3. JesseLefler
    Now that we have reached that terrible time of year where mother nature can't make up her mind whether it should be warm, cold, raining or sunny, it is scarier than ever to drive with my father. Everyone in my family knows that he is by far the worst driver. (Even worse than me even though I've had my license for less than a year). It's not that he doesn't stay in the lines or anything, his biggest problem is that he is the most impatient driver I have ever driven with. He constantly goes way faster than the speed limit and drives right on people's bumpers if they are going slower than he wants to go. Normally I am not very nervous because he has never gotten into an accident while I was in the car, but during the fall and winter months I get extremely nervous because I feel like he doesn't even realize that it will take him longer to stop or slow down when the ground is wet or has snow/ice on it. He obviously has a good sense of how long it will take him to stop when the ground is dry. But he fails to recognize that since the ground is not dry, the coefficient of friction between the rubber from the tires and the pavement is lower. This lower coefficient of friction means that it will take longer for the car to come to a stop since their is less of a frictional force acting against the car's forward movement.
  4. JesseLefler
    I first began golfing during the summer prior to my freshman year of high school. Obviously, like all things, I was far from good when I first started. Although I had played baseball for years I still found it very difficult to strike the ball the way that I was supposed to. Because of my constant miss-hitting on the golf ball, I never was able to get the correct flight trajectory that all of my friends were getting. I quickly realized that golf was not nearly as easy as it had seemed and that I would have practice a lot if I wanted to reach the level of play that I was hoping to achieve. Although the angle on the clubs seem so minimal, when hit correctly the ball still is able to fly far higher than expected. On average a golf player's driver is angled anywhere from 9 - 10.5 degrees upwards. The angle is so minimal but due to the swing of the golf club and the golf ball itself being so small the ball is still able to reach heights that exceed hundreds of yards in the air. The swing of that the player uses heavily determines how high their ball will go. Rory Mcilroy is widely considered as having the most fundamentally sound golf swings on the PGA Tour. It is because of that that he also has one of the highest average's for how far in the air his ball goes. When swinging a driver you are typically supposed to contact the ball on your up swing rather than your down swing. This differs from golfer to golfer but if you were to ask a golf pro, they would teach you to hit the ball on your upswing which along with the angle of the club, will cause the ball to go higher in the air depending on how far into your up swing you are when you contact the ball.
  5. JesseLefler
    This is my first of too many blog posts that are required for this class. As many know I have the most fire twitter in all of IHS, I recently accomplished my goal of reaching 7.2 followers which is pretty sweet. I also dabble in the arts of CYO basketball, golf and volleyball. I have a countless amount of strengths and virtually no weaknesses. My only downfall that seems to hinder the performance of my work is that generally I don't care enough to put in any effort. However, I strive every day to become a better and more committed student. I have a younger brother who is in 10th grade this year and an older brother that teaches health and physical education at Dake. My future hopefully consists of me going to Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and majoring in engineering followed up by finding a job right out of college so that I can make as much money as possible in my lifetime. I have decided that I am not concerned with how much i actually enjoy that career as long as it pays well. I am taking AP Physics C because it looks good for colleges, there is no lab period, there is no regents exam and I want to major in engineering so this class will hopefully give me the knowledge i need in order to be successful in college and throughout my career. I also heard that this class allows the students to be a little more free in terms of what they do from day to day which really interested me. From taking AP Physics C I hope to gain the necessary knowledge that will put me ahead or in the top percentile of engineering majors at whatever college I decide to go to. I am most excited about not having to hear lectures from Mr. Fullerton every day, I like the fact that there will only be a few lectures and then the rest of the days will be left alone for me and my partners in class to get the appropriate work done in order to score well on tests, especially the AP test in May. I am most anxious about the AP test in may. I have never been a big fan of the idea that one test determines how well you understand and can apply what you have learned throughout the year. While I personally have done exceptional on most of those types of tests throughout my life, I sympathize for those who struggle in those situations. 
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