Cool Baseball Illusion

[CySeymour]

Saw this posted in Rob Neyer's blog at ESPN.com. Very cool to look at:

http://www.aip.org/isns/reports/2009/051309visualillusion.html

[GOYA]

BS

Scientists have been trying to prove a curveball doesn't really curve for years. When's the last time you saw a pitch that had that strobing of light across it? It's a cool illusion but a curveball isn't an illusion. And how many batters watch the ball out of their peripheral vision instead of looking straight at it?

[CySeymour]

BS

Scientists have been trying to prove a curveball doesn't really curve for years. When's the last time you saw a pitch that had that strobing of light across it? It's a cool illusion but a curveball isn't an illusion. And how many batters watch the ball out of their peripheral vision instead of looking straight at it?

Actually, I didn't take the article to say that a curve doesn't curve....but I did take it to say it doesn't curve AS MUCH as we think.

[GOYA]

Agreed, it actually says that it DOES curve gradually. But:


the spin of the ball fools the brain into thinking that the ball is curving.

That's the BS part.