It's baseball season.

And from exit velocity to the rotation of a curveball, science can help explain the hits, runs, and errors.

We should lobby that both baseball and science will be the unifying theory for humanity to get along.

It's Thursday, April 18th.

Batter up, it's Science Friday.

I'm SciFry producer Charles Bergquist. There's nothing like a spring or summer day at the

ballpark. The roar of the crowd, the crack of the bat, maybe some snacks and beverages.

But if you add science into the mix, that home game can mean so much more.

Here's baseball fan, Ira Flato.

I am a real baseball fanatic, and I mean, I love all the aspects of the sport, the plays, the players, the

ballparks. But what makes it even more exciting for me is understanding the physics behind

the runs hits and errors, trajectories, velocities, baseball spin rates. Baseball is filled

with these details. And my next guest is also a baseball fan, both for the game itself and how the

sport can be a gateway to science literacy. Dr. Frederick Bertley is president and CEO of COSI,

the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio. Welcome to Science Friday.

Ira, thank you so much for having me on here.

Now, I know that baseball is now obsessed with physics, though they don't call it that, you know.

One of the immediate examples that comes to mind is trajectories and parabolas, a ball is launched at angle X with speed Y.

And the players pay attention to this, don't they?

Absolutely.

I mean, the easiest quickest analogy is to jump from baseball and go to basketball.

And think about taking a foul shot, Shaquille O'Neal versus, you know, anybody else is the foul line, basically.

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