Aluminum vs Bat Test

Procedure:

1.Get an aluminum bat, wood bat, and baseballs.

2. Dropped baseballs on the bats.

3. Measure and record how far each ball goes. (do three rounds of testing)

4. Then put a bat on the floor and drop the ball on it.

5. Then measure and record how far the ball bounced. (do three rounds of testing)

6. Find the average distance of each bat from batting tee tests.

7. Find the average distance of the each bat from the dropped ball tests.

8. Show results in a double bar graph

Hypothesis:

My hypothesis is that an aluminum bat would hit the farthest since the material that it’s made from is lighter than wood, allowing the batter to swing harder.

Abstract:

I know that most baseball players in Little League, grade school, high school, and college use metal bats. However, some college teams and all of the pros use wooden bats. Do batters who hit with metal bats have an advantage over batters who hit with wood bats? Can a metal bat hit for a greater distance than a wooden bat? I conducted my own experiments to see which bat, wood or metal, would hit a baseball the farthest. My hypothesis is that an aluminum bat would hit the farthest since the material that it’s made from is lighter than wood, allowing the batter to swing harder.

I tested an aluminum bat and a wooden bat, each by putting the bat on the floor and then dropping a baseball from 4 ft off the ground. The baseballs were all dropped at the same height, but the only difference was that it depended on the way that the ball hit the bat. If the ball hit the bat closer to the edge, the ball would go farther, but if it hit more on the top middle, it would bounce up and then roll. I used a measuring tape to measure the distance the balls rolled. I tested each bat a total of three times. When the ball rolled I first saw how far it went and then I used the measuring tape to measure how far the baseball went.

All the data I collected were all pretty close because even tho the ball fell a different way all my numbers were pretty cloe to each other numbers. When I tested an aluminum bat I felt like the ball rolled faster and had a little more force. Than when I used a wooden bat because when I used a wooden bat the speed of the ball decreased. The numbers dropped lower than the time when I did it with an aluminum bat. I got numbers like 2.56 for the aluminum bat and 4.34 for the wooden bat.

My hypothesis was correct because when I tested both bats the aluminum bat was the one that went for a greater distance than the wooden bat. The reason I thought a aluminum bat would hit harder was because it was lighter and the higher you drop the ball the farther the ball would roll. The same thing would happen with the wooden bat but instead you might think a wooden bat would hit harder but since it’s heavy it's harder to swing. I could improve on this project by testing it a few more time because I tested it only 3 times and I could of also tested a few different ways instead of one way.

Graphs:

Conclusion:

I could improve on this project by testing it a few more time because I tested it only 3 times and I could of also tested a few different ways instead of one way.