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what-if.xkcd.com

Relativistic Baseball

This is a collection of all 13 recommendations for “Relativistic Baseball”. You’ll probably need 3 minutes to finish this text.

By popularity By time
Erik
After about 70 nanoseconds the ball arrives at home plate. The batter hasn't even seen the pitcher let go of the ball, since the light carrying that information arrives at about the same time the ball does. Collisions with the air have eaten the ball away almost completely, and it is now a bullet-shaped cloud of expanding plasma (mainly carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen) ramming into the air and triggering more fusion as it goes.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Erik

    Erik Randall Monroe has a new blog that tries to answer hypothetical questions which he receives per mail.

    July 10, 2012
  2. Markus Reuter

    Markus Reuter Super cool.

    July 10, 2012
Johannes Steidl
a growing fireball rises into a mushroom cloud. Then, with a great roar, the blast wave arrives, tearing up trees and shredding houses.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
Recited from Arne Mertz
Ancro
The ball smacks into them so hard that the atoms in the air molecules actually fuse with the atoms in the ball’s surface. Each collision releases a burst of gamma rays and scattered particles.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Ancro

    Ancro XKCD about a baseball causing a nuclear explosion.

    July 19, 2012
colorian
What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. colorian

    colorian Explanation of the physical happenings in a (rather unlikely) case like this.

    July 12, 2012
Arne Mertz
a growing fireball rises into a mushroom cloud. Then, with a great roar, the blast wave arrives, tearing up trees and shredding houses.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Arne Mertz

    Arne Mertz Relativistic Baseball...

    September 19, 2012
Paul Neuhaus
When it reaches the batter, the center of the cloud is still moving at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. It hits the bat first, but then the batter, plate, and catcher are all scooped up and carried backward through the backstop as they disintegrate.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Paul Neuhaus

    Paul Neuhaus What happens when you throw a baseball at the speed of light.

    July 16, 2012
Noah Doersing
Then, with a great roar, the blast wave arrives, tearing up trees and shredding houses. Everything within roughly a mile of the park is leveled, and a firestorm engulfs the surrounding city.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Noah Doersing

    Noah Doersing "What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"

    July 10, 2012
jolbrich
The ideas of aerodynamics don’t apply here. Normally, air would flow around anything moving through it. But the air molecules in front of this ball don’t have time to be jostled out of the way. The ball smacks into them hard that the atoms in the air molecules actually fuse with the atoms in the ball’s surface. Each collision releases a burst of gamma rays and scattered particles.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. jolbrich

    jolbrich "What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at .9 c?"

    July 10, 2012
Felix Peeck
What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? - Ellen McManis Let’s set aside the question of how we got the baseball moving that fast. We'll suppose it's a normal pitch, except in the instant the pitcher releases the ball, it magically accelerates to 0.9c.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Felix Peeck

    Felix Peeck I love those crazy thoughts.

    July 11, 2012
drazraeltod
A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered "hit by pitch", and would be eligible to advance to first base.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. drazraeltod

    drazraeltod :D

    July 10, 2012
Matthias Schmidt
The constant fusion at the front of the ball pushes back on it, slowing it down, as if the ball were a rocket flying tail-first while firing its engines. Unfortunately, the ball is going so fast that even the tremendous force from this ongoing thermonuclear explosion barely slows it down at all.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
  1. Matthias Schmidt

    Matthias Schmidt What happens if one throws a baseball at the speed of light?

    July 12, 2012
andré soral
After about 70 nanoseconds the ball arrives at home plate. The batter hasn't even seen the pitcher let go of the ball, since the light carrying that information arrives at about the same time the ball does.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
Torsten Kohlmann
We'll suppose it's a normal pitch, except in the instant the pitcher releases the ball, it magically accelerates to 0.9c. From that point onward, everything proceeds according to normal physics.
Estimated reading time: 3 min