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Curiosity Weekly

Pomodoro Technique to Stop Procrastination, Where Medicine Goes, and Baseball Physics

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6963 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2019

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn about the physics of hitting a baseball; a productivity hack to stop procrastination; and, how viruses and medicines know where to go in your body.

In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:

Additional resources discussed:

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/pomodoro-technique-to-stop-procrastination-where-medicine-goes-and-baseball-physics


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

0:05.0

I'm Cody Guff.

0:06.0

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

0:07.0

Today you learn about the physics of hitting a baseball and a productivity hack to stop procrastination.

0:12.0

We'll also answer a listener question

0:14.0

about how viruses and medicines know where to go in your body.

0:17.0

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

0:19.0

Baseball season is in full swing, get it? I get it. And whether or not you actually watch the sport, you have to admit that it's pretty hard to actually hit a baseball. In fact, when you think about the physics behind what it takes to knock a ball out of the park, it makes

0:34.2

baseball players look like actual superheroes.

0:37.4

So let's talk about the mountain of research that goes into the science of this sport.

0:41.6

Consider this. A pitch takes about 500 milliseconds to travel from the

0:46.1

pitcher to the plate, although a fastball can take as little as 375 milliseconds.

0:51.5

The moment the ball leaves the pitching mound, the batter is already at a disadvantage.

0:56.4

That's because it takes his brain 75 to 100 milliseconds to even process the fact that the ball is coming toward him.

1:03.0

It also takes time to swing.

1:05.0

The fastest swings in baseball happen in 100 to 150 milliseconds.

1:10.0

That leaves only about 150 milliseconds for the batter to actually make a decision about his swing.

1:16.7

For some context, it takes as much as 400 milliseconds to blink.

1:21.1

That's right, you have to decide how to swing in less than half the time it takes to blink.

1:27.0

And that's why researchers have poured countless hours and funding dollars into the study of that brief moment in time.

1:33.0

One way they do that is by watching how players keep their eyes on the ball.

1:37.0

A 2014 study found that until very late in the pitch,

...

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