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Trying to Catch a 1,000 MPH Baseball - Smarter Every Day 247 (Patreon)

Published:
2020-11-12 15:13:05
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

OK.... so here's the deal.  This is a crazy hard engineering challenge.  How would you do it?  I'm seriously thinking Rocket Sled travelling in the same direction the cannon is firing.  

I did some analysis and understand the velocity that rips apart a baseball glove (180mph).  Knowing that threshold, the relative velocities of the ball and the glove have to be within that velocity of each other.   That means the glove would have to accelerate to 800 mph in order to catch this thing... which is INSANE.  

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this video.  Also, I negotiated with Guardian Bikes to secure a few shipping containers of bicycles so if your kid needs a bike you can actually get one for Christmas.  That link is https://www.guardianbikes.com/smarter if you'd like to do that.

Thank you so much for supporting on Patreon!  You're the only reason we were able to build this crazy thing!

Regards,

Destin

Files

Trying to Catch a 1,000 MPH Baseball - Smarter Every Day 247

Get a Bike 🎁🚲👉 https://www.guardianbikes.com/smarter Click here if you're interested in subscribing: http://bit.ly/Subscribe2SED ⇊ Click below for more links! ⇊ If you'd like a Smarter Every Day Baseball, I mail them out to every Patron: https://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GET SMARTER SECTION Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqidD7kVnxY Behind the Scenes: How We Made the Baseball Cannon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E60G3ba4TUA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tweet Ideas to me at: http://twitter.com/smartereveryday Smarter Every Day on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SmarterEveryDay Smarter Every Day on Patreon http://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday Smarter Every Day On Instagram http://www.instagram.com/smartereveryday Smarter Every Day SubReddit http://www.reddit.com/r/smartereveryday Ambiance, audio and musicy things by: Gordon McGladdery https://www.ashellinthepit.com/ http://ashellinthepit.bandcamp.com/ If you feel like this video was worth your time and added value to your life, please SHARE THE VIDEO! If you REALLY liked it, feel free to pitch a few dollars Smarter Every Day by becoming a Patron. http://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday Warm Regards, Destin

Comments

Austin Blount

Old post, but just watched a new dude perfect video where someone else built a supersonic baseball cannon. Did you have any involvement in that?

Bruce Meacham

Use kevlar netting? It would capture it, then envelope around it then let air resistance decelerate it gradually enough that it doesn't just rip apart. If you wanted it to be more "glove like", maybe make a webbing (think butterfly net) attached to a solid carbon fiber arm which can flex A_LOT. Need to get all that contrated energy to spread enough over distance and time.

Timothy Pitcock

WE GET A BIKE FOR FREE....AWESOME THX DESTIN!!!!. J.K.J.K.J.K.... LOLOL.

Jason

I think it would look cool if you shot it at a white or light colored background so you can see all the individual fibers ripping apart. It's hard to see the dark fibers with a black background

Bey Vrancken

I'm happy I listened through the sponsor section because your 'Back in the day, we thought a mullet counted as a helmet' comment is gold! What if you shot it in an arc, and team up again with Shane from Stuff made here to create an RC car that catches it in a net, based on calculating the trajectory. Sort of similar to the SpaceX drone ships. Let the air resistance do the slowing down for you!

Dan & Jen Baizel

I am a materials engineer, so that I agree with Bruce that stronger materials may be a solution (Kevlar, carbon fiber, steel plates). Another idea is to do something like reactive armor. Could you put an air bag explosive in the glove that would cause an outwards explosion to sap the baseball of its energy. My last idea is could you just use alot of gloves let it slow itself down by letting it rip through something like 30 gloves. My last impractical, but fun idea is to change the medium and shoot this underwater or on venus so air resistance slows it down faster.

Phillip Anderson

I only want a bike if it has reverse steering.

Colin Richardson

This may sound like a stupid suggestion.. but what about trying to force a redirect? Steel tube bigger at 1 end, like a trombone, but never gets smaller than the ball itself, but it starts to coil like a snail shell. The whole thing itself shouldn't be tied down, So rather than trying to stop the ball dead in it's tracks, it should try to redirect the ball upwards with a curve, which will of course make the whole coil/trombone thing lift off and move, but keeps the ball within itself as the whole thing moves around. Hopefully this will contain enough of the energy.. It may end up coming straight out the end of the coil.. but with enough coils, it will hopefully stay inside. No idea how shallow the coil would have to be to "gently" deflect a 140gram ball doing Mach1 without ripping the ball shell off. Edit: I only say trombone to make it easier to get the ball to go down the coil in the first place.. Edit2: I think this just proves I am crap at drawing Coils, but I hope this makes sense.. https://photos.app.goo.gl/A8XZhzj1dpJgYUVa9

Christopher Kenny

13:54 is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Iulian Valentin Petrea

Hi destin, i think I came up with a great idea, don't know if it works though. My idea consist of creating some kind of spiral-shaped object. This way when the ball enters this object, it will start rotating and losing speed, avoiding it to break through. To make you understand better, think of the water park slides, and imagine the ball is the person that have a ride on it. I think this would if the object is made of a strong material and it has to be long enough for the ball to decelerate enough. Tell me what you guys think about it, thanks

synmonger

@Timothy Pitcock Maybe you're on to something there. What about giving needy kids a free bike? I can't afford a whole one, maybe we could go in halvesies?

Nathan's Hotdog Scoop

I'd like to see something to deflect the air chasing the ball. If you could go ahead and create a vacuum chamber the size of that open field it may solve the problem.

JBBrickFanatic

Incredible video! What if you attached a glove to the mad batter and timed it right to have the glove act as a moving cushion? Like how you catch a water balloon or egg. Keep up the amazing work!

Nathan's Hotdog Scoop

I'm reading a few comments asking something similar to each other. Put that gun on a giant lazy Susan and give Angelina Jolie a call! Time to get the perfect curveball, "WANTED" style.

Barron B

This is an interesting problem. You have three issues, one dissipate the energy of the baseball, maintain contact with the ball (close the glove around it), survive and maintain the catch through the following air blast. I’d work this problem backwards a little first. What is the speed at which the glove fails? Currently at Mach it’s like butter, but we also know a catchers mitt can snag a ball at 1/10th the speed. I suspect the failure point is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2. But that’s more a swag thinking about tensile strengths but have no idea how right it is. Assuming you get that you could spin the glove to lower the differential speed and then dissipate the energy through a brake. This works from a conceptual standpoint but the logistics of making a system to do that is a bit complicated. I want a simpler method. Now I’m going to be thinking about this all day.

CJ Siano

The interesting question would be: Can you catch it? Can you develop a rig that allows the glove to "catch" the ball and then the rig has the ability to decelerate it without bursting the leather. I suspect the answer is no simply because the catcher's glove wasn't held very tight and it burst through very easily. You also saw that the catchers glove was able to prevent the ball from exiting the mannequin, so you should be able to develop some kind of means to "catch". I'm thinking that a glove made of a much stronger fiber, but less weight tied to some kind of deceleration rig might have a chance. The last suggestion is to catch like you see a coach do when he has no glove - he moves he hand with the ball and catches it on the move allowing the swing of his arm to decelerate. Of course, this would be the hardest to build a rig to try, but it might be the best chance of "catching" with a standard glove. Maybe divert some air "blast" to a piston that sends a trolley in motion that has the glove. If the glove is in motion already, the impact shock could be reduced enough. Then you have to slow it down. Anyway, those are some ideas. BTW, are any of those "made it through the glove" but still kinda intact balls available for purchase? While I love the Trash Panda ball on my desk, I'll send you $200 for one of those. Serious offer.

Max

Maybe attach the glove to a track with a spring. Think of the way a bolt carrier works in a firearm. Gas shoots back to move the bolt carrier and as the spring compresses it slows it down gradually. In this scenario, the gas is replaced with a baseball and the bolt carrier is replaced with the glove, and you’ll just need a really big spring. You may need to get the glove moving backwards pre-impact to give it a better chance. Kind of the same idea when you’re catching a puck in ice hockey. If you keep your stick in the same place the puck hits and bounces off or rolls over, but if you cushion the puck it’s a nice smooth catch

MythicFool

I'm honestly enraptured by the vapor cone behind the baseball as it flies. I don't remember seeing it in the previous video.

Michael Y.

Is it possible that the fire came from the ball hitting the metal finger that was holding the glove up?

Felix S Xu

My best suggestion would be to aim your cannon into the sky, fire the ball up, and then you just have to catch a terminal velocity baseball in the next zip code :) As I think about this - it would be less ridiculous than it sounds - you could go to a desert and use a GPS tracker to get a rough idea of the ball's trajectory and final destination - then a vision system could be attached to a drone with the baseball glove as a payload to try and catch it. Perfect for a collab with StuffMadeHere :P Alternative hypothesis for the flame is that the localized air pressure skyrocketed between the netting and the ball, leading to enough temperature to light the leather on fire? Something like the classic plunger and cotton experiment... Just a thought!

Hogtown Pens

I think you not only need to "catch" the baseball, but deceleration is key. IE, you can't just "stop" it, you need to convert its kinetic energy into something else. While kevlar netting might do this, you obviously want to catch it in a (modified) baseball glove! The only thing I can think is if, rather than fixing the glove in place, you could have it mounted on a (long) arm so that it can turn all the energy in the baseball into rotational energy, and then you can apply a brake to the whole contraption. or, mount the "glove" on a magnetic track (which would allow you to accelerate the glove) and then decelerate it in a controlled way... linear eddy current brakes would be the lowest-tech way to do it, I bet! turn all that kinetic energy into heat!

BinkyNingy2

I have an important question: When are you going to mount this thing vertical and send a baseball into space????

Hogtown Pens

one other thought - the simple approach. figure out the maximum speed that you can hit a conventional glove without destroying it, and figure out how far away the glove needs to be to catch it at that speed. then set it up! you're not catching it "at mach speed" but you're catching a ball that WAS faster than sound :) final thought would be to invite the How Ridiculous guys over to see if they can pull off a sub-mach catch. the ball may only be going 50mph by the end of its journey but it would be quite the challenge!

Rasmus Holmskov

Is it just me, or is the baseball on fire even before impact? Look behind it at 10:52. Would be interesting to hear if Destin noticed this too

Trint Ladd

Patreon perk!! A glove with a hole in it!

jeno

Hello! Really neat indeed. Now I'm curious at which speed the ball is on the end of that last shot, even so maybe the slow down of each glove. Hehe

Johnny

+1 to the ideas of energy dissipation. If the goal is to use a standard glove. It seems like you need to measure the maximum kinetic energy the glove can absorb. Then to you have to have to shoot the glove backwards, so the delta in KE with the ball stays below that threshold. Then you have to decelerate the glove+ball as a unit. Amusingly...the fire is a rapid energy dissipation. A fun way to solve this problem is what materials could translate kinect energy into fire without introducing much chemical potential energy. Perhaps fine dust like creamer might combust on impact? At the very least, fine dust/sand trap could dissipate the energy quickly and safely.

BinkyNingy2

It doesn’t seem like accelerating the glove to minimize the impact velocity is a valid approach. Baseballs weigh 5.25 ounces, Catchers mitts weigh 26 ounces, so says Google. Watching the video, it looks like a 10th glove would have stood a chance to stop the ball. So, only 10% of the energy can be applied to the glove. Kinetic energy is Ke=1/2 (mass)(velocity). The energy of the 1000 mph baseball is 14872 joules (so says 1728.org/energy.htm). That means the maximum energy dissipated by the glove is 1487 joules. Working that backwards, the baseball can’t be travelling more than 316 miles an hour relative to the glove when they collide. If you accelerate the glove so that the relative velocity is 316 mph, then the glove and the ball are now both travelling at 684 mph. With a combined kinetic energy of 41,416 joules, which is three times the energy of the ball alone. How are you planning on stopping that without destroying the ball, glove, backstop, and the neighbors house? And how big a cannon would you need to get the glove moving at 684 mph?!?

Steve Jones

I was kind of thinking the same.. I'd be curious what the humidity difference in the days were.

Johnny

Good point that accelerating the glove would introduce way more energy. So, it seems like you have bleed energy off the ball. Maybe put the glove inside a large fish tank filled with water? The water will help impedence match the air and the glove leather? Adding layers of foam of increasing density in the front may also impedence match the air and water reducing damage on the ball hitting the water?

Johnny

Destin, may be good to invest in some front facing mirrors. This will allow more options to get the camera out of danger, and maybe even allow getting shots closer to the action. Perhaps someone can help build a cheap version a rotating mirror tracking camera. https://youtu.be/vluzeaVvpU0

BinkyNingy2

We need to realize that the glove will never catch a 1000 MPH ball. We are just designing ways to slow the ball down do 316 mph (relative to the glove). Put 10 gloves in a row, I think the 10th one would catch it.

Pierre Martel

Unless a glove have a metal plate in it, there is no way this ball can be catched. Maybe designe a metal glove that will close on itself by the force of the ball (just like the leather one do) and let the metal glove decelerate on a rotating point. and even there, I am sure the ball wont survive this. So maybe a thick rubber glove on a metal form that will close down on it self,that is on a wheel so that all the kinetic energy can be dissipated. But that is mostly impossible.. BTW I just received my baseball monday, and I am in the process of designing a baseball support for it.. I am no guru with fusion 360. If it is cute I will send you a photo!

BinkyNingy2

put a parachute on the baseball inside of the cannon.

Ulf Jerlström

what Caliber round would a basebal0l count as?

Thirsten

Okay, first and foremost AWESOME VIDEO! But there was something that I don't fully understand what I'm seeing. At the 10:52 mark when shooting the ball at the second glove if you look closely at the ball just before it hits the glove, on the lower right side of the ball you can see what almost looks like a flame? or is it just the red thread getting ripped... hard to tell with YT compression.

dwarfnose

ok, I read the post before I saw the video. And I thought the bikes were a donation to poor kids.

Captain WhyNot

Caliber is not normally used to refer to something that large. But, currently, official MLB baseball circumference is between 9 and 9-1/4 inches. So, bore needing to be slightly larger, just over 3" caliber would be about right. That would be like the 3"/50 caliber (caliber being used, in this case, as measure of barrel length: 3*50 = 150" long, 3" diameter) which was used on several U.S. warships. edit: Mixed up diameter with circumference.

Jose Martinez

You have to attach the glove to a rail that will allow the ball to decelerate and absorb as much of the balls kinetic energy before stopping, it’s the same principle as surviving a car accident, it’s not the deceleration that kills you it’s a sudden stop. Attach the glove to a sliding rail that will allow it to decelerate in a controlled fashion and it should survive, but it will have to be a long rail. Hope that helps.

Scott Cress

Hi Desitin, as is shown in your video the glove and physics can't react in time to stop the ball with that much energy. The only way to slow down the ball is to dissipate the energy. The best material to dissipate energy without obliterating it is water. Suspend the glove in one of those square "farm tanks" or some other translucent plastic large, like 55-100 gal, container. Let the ball travel through water to dissipate the energy. The glove might survive then.

Frowin Winkes

I'm thinking steel tube with thick walls and one end welded shut. Your catch would have to be pretty precise but once the ball enters the tube the air in the tube would function as a cushion, building up pressure the further down the tube the ball goes. The produced force might still damage the ball though if the gap around the ball is not big enough which could be solved with a simple pressure valve fitted to the end of the tube. Looking at the interaction between tube and shock cone could also make for some cool footage. Just my two cents :)

Conrad Stodgell

What are your thoughts on the flame being a product of compression ignition due to the shock cone in front of the ball being trapped against the closed surface of the basket weave glove?

Jerame Edwards

I came here to toss the idea of compression as well, Conrad!

Wes Matchett

Great video! I started thinking of other situations needing to stop an object in a short amount of time without destroying the object. What came to mind is stunt man jumps. A LARGE bag with baffles allows air pressure to cushion the impact and dissipate the energy over a large area. A vertical bag might be able to handle the energy. The initial problem you are having is material strength. The glove just can't handle it. So try increasing glove strength. Kevlar front and back webbing would help. It can stop a bullet. The glove webbing is also held in place with leather string - so that is a weak point. Maybe make an entire glove of Kevlar?

Josh Murphy

For the fire, I'm also in the compression-ignition camp. The surface of suede leather on the net weave pocket should be sufficient to get a nice oxygen-leather fuel ratio. No fire on the smooth leather.

Mark Stanton

When the ball flashed flame, I wonder if it was the stitching on the ball acting like a rumble strip on the stitching on the glove, and the rapid, repeated moments of thread-to-thread contact heated it up enough to flash?

Brian Matters

Are there more constraints for stopping the ball as in the area of the 'mit', the distance to stop the ball in, and if the 'mit' is to be reusable etc? I'd go with a kevlar capture area in combo with a tunable hydraulic/pneumatic ram to control the deceleration. The rocket sled or explosion pressure front would be way more fun to watch due to the sheer complexity!

VitAnyaNaked

First of all, I would like to thank you for the video, because what you are doing is unimaginable. And also a cool idea with bicycles for Christmas ...

Brian Matters

Ah, got the twist at the end - catch the ball with a standard mit. Now I see the need to close the velocity difference between the glove and the ball! Accelerate the glove to a target velocity near the velocity of the ball before the ball hits the glove and without deforming the glove to the point the ball can't hit it would be a huge challenge. With this in mind I'd go with a sled and track system with multiple rockets to tune and control the thrust profile. Low frontal area on the sled to minimize wind resistance and low friction track system. The sled could even fly in ground effect. Arresting cables at the end and a trigger mechanism placed on the track down range and it might be feasible. Title it 800mph glove! Lol.

Andy

Hi Destin, will there be captioning available for this video? Thanks

vennic

Imbed a mitt just inside a block of ballistic gel. Cheating?

Elmer Fud

I vote for a kevlar and/or steel cable glove. If you put the glove against the steel plate and fire the baseball at it the glove may also sort of survive, but it is not really catching the ball at that point, it is just sort of getting squished and transferring energy. I also am wondering if you could get the glove up to speed with something like garage door springs that are released at the same time/just before/after the baseball to accelerate the glove to speed.

Elmer Fud

I have also found that Kayak's and other outdoor sports equipment was mostly out of stock earlier this year

Stijn Habekotté

I am really curious as to how fast the baseball was still going after passing through all those catching mitts. It must still be going absolutely rapid, since the ball doesn't seem to have much problems passing through the last one

Nikita Rudakov

I'm thinking along the lines of needing to convert that linear energy into something else. Maybe rotational energy? Have some kind of spinning boom arm with the mit at the end and time the shot in order to catch the ball.

Ashley Blake-Hood

Tie a mit to a rapidly rotating arm then time the rotation and firing of the ball and decelerate from there. A much more compact solution than a sled... And probably entirely unrealistic, but I'd love to see you try!

Elmer Fud

It probably would not be to hard to repurposed the baseball bat spinning machine to add mits to the end, I don't think it hit anywhere near 800 mph for the bat speed though

Nikita Rudakov

Yeah! Main thing Destin will need to tackle is slowing the momentum of the ball. He can maybe make a video of testing different mitts or leather thicknesses against moving projectiles to find the tensile strength of the mitt, then doing some light math to find the critical speed at which the ball can be caught without tearing the leather and go from there.

Owen Edwards

This isn't an idea about how to solve the problem, I just wanted to point out that the ball that ignited the basket weave glove was already on fire before it impacted the glove.

Ron Williams

I have never laughed so much and been so terrified at the same time. What have you created?!? That could literally go through a whole baseball team!

Tim Blais

I am with you on this. I think that if there could be some kind of mechanism that drops down in front of the nozzle and deflects the air up maybe. Have it trigger a few milliseconds after the button is pushed to fire the cannon.

James Austin

Oh wow! You're right. There is something there on the one shot before the fire impact. I guess it's natural to focus on the moment of impact, but good spotting, because there looks like something else is going on there.

Ian Hecht

I think my favourite thing about this whole series is that the cannon clearly has MK1 on the side, which implies that it is not the last one that will be built... science!

Clifton Ballad

Destin, As awesome as this video is going to be, I cant get past 1:47 without commenting... You needed more volts and more wire speed. I don't know the machine you used, but I'm willing to guess you were around 20 volts and maybe 200 IPM (just over half on the wire speed dial??) For the roughly 1/4" thick metal you were working with, and the fillet weld you were going for, you should have been up around 300-350 on the wire speed and maybe 21 on volts... Also, around 1:55... SIT YOUR BUTT DOWN! Get comfy man! Get a stool, perch, use both hands on the torch ect ect. As my welding teacher yelled into the back of my helmet one day; SMOOTH! ROBOTIC! MOVEMENTS! (read in an angry drill instructor voice 3" away from your ear mid weld...)

Clifton Ballad

The vapor trail around the baseball is absolutely beautiful!

Steven Behnke

In the shot where the flame appears when the ball impacts the glove, it appears that there is a bit of yellow/orange/red trailing the ball PRIOR to impacting the glove. What is that? Is that fire also? Could friction of the air be causing combustion?

Robert Garvin

I want to know more about the vapor trail! That looks SO cool.

Robert Garvin

Also, Thanks for the videos! They've changed me!

Scott Olinger

I love this!!! My wife and I suggest to stack the gloves without the spacing in-between. The idea is to decelerate the ball over a distance like guardrails do on a freeway. I'm thinking that the glove would shred like a tire if it rotated fast enough to be within the 180 mph of the baseball. Also, if the glove was accelerated on a rail along with the ball, you wouldn't be catching a super sonic baseball.

Gabriel Smiley

This is by far my favorite video from you yet. I was giggling from excitement the whole time and I’m not ashamed to say it. 😂😂😂

V.E. Griffith

So here's my (actual science) question: On many of the high speed shots, there appears to be a visible aura trailing the ball. For example, you can see it at clearly 4:55 and 6:25 (and later shots as well). What is this? The cone collapsing behind the ball? I've never seen this on shots of other supersonic objects (rockets and fighter jets). Destin, could you cover this next time?

Fred E

I'd love a poster of that.

Ethan Collett

I absolutely loved this video, the power, the speed, the pressure, the slow-mo sound design. I have so many ideas flowing through my mind on how to catch such a projectile and they are all ridiculous(ly- awesome). Its got me like laminar flow has Destin. Lastly, cheers for the baseball :D

Shane Spencer

Catcher glove re-woven with stronger fabric mounted to rocket equipped I-beam trolly/sled. Fire the sled before the baseball so the glove can accelerate then a damper to slow the glove gently at the other end of the I-beam. Some of the old rocket sled footage looks like they used water under the track to brake the sled slowly. I cannot help but think of this when contemplating a purpose made rig to catch a supersonic baseball shot from a purpose-made rig. https://youtu.be/Z86V_ICUCD4

Marc Caron

That was one of the funnest videos man! Loved it. I thought it was going to go through all the gloves but you guys were all predicting 3-5 and I started doubting myself. Glad I guess as well as the guy who crashes your drones. :)

Shad Sterling

I think you could catch it in a metal cup with some kind of shock absorber behind it. Seeing the gloves on the beam, I imagine mounting the metal catcher on a rail (like the beam) so it will travel backward on the beam and be slowed by whatever shock absorber. If you want to use the mitt you could mount the mitt inside the cup, when the ball hits the mitt the leather will be pinched between the ball and the metal and shouldn't tear.

Andrew Lear

This was sick. I want one of those gloves Destin.

Tony Braden

First you catch it, then you hit it with a bat.

Brady OBrien

I feel like a layer of lead shot an inch or so in front of the glove would act kind of like a whipple shield and take off a good chunk of the kinetic energy.

Wesley Schrader

Hey! So I saw your question and had the same thought. I'm pretty sure it's the same as the vapor cone seen around jets (and even the Apollo 11 rocket) as it breaks the sound barrier due to moisture droplets being caught between 2 high pressure surfaces of air coming off of the aircrafts (or the ball in this case).

Andy

Hi destin can you at least turn on the auto captioning feature? Better than nothing thanks

Tony Braden

Destin, can you go into more detail about why you chose to use nitrogen to pressurize the canon?

donutguy

X'D mullets are not helmets!

*pause for dramatic effect*

That was my thought as well, a freshly oiled leather glove has plenty of fuel to combust and between the compression and the friction there's plenty of thermal energy available.

Josh Maday

Destin! I have a theory about the fire! I think that it's due to the pressure wave ahead of the ball. The H-strap glove has plenty of opening for the pressure to equalize across the two sides of the glove, but the basket weave traps a lot of that air. As the ball approaches, the air rapidly pressurizes within the pocket of the glove, generating heat like a fire piston. After some googling, assuming the threads in the stitching are cotton, then they're fully capable of spontaneously combusting under pressure (especially if they're waxed)

Brian Pedersen

I was actually thinking, use a string of hanging water balloons, I think they could stop the ball quite quickly! The childish side of me also wants to see water balloons filled with oobleck - I wonder if the shockwave could actually pulverise it!? Oh, and just got my baseball today, I am soo happy!

smartereveryday

Holy moly that would need to be a tremendously strong device.

smartereveryday

This is a very important question. I just want to understand what hangtime is possible.

bossminion-freizeit

I don't know the baseball going through the dummy has been one of the most satisfying slow-motion videos I've sen =P LOL

bossminion-freizeit

One question for maybe someone here, although perhaps it's not the right venue. I'll appreciate any help. I have been instructed to purchase an industrial High Speed camera by my boss, but I have no experience with them =S, only with conventional cameras/stereo/sonar, etc. By reading a lot today, my conclusion is that it is almost impossible to save to memory all frames for more than some tens of seconds. Can someone confirm? I see some HS cameras save to RAM some tens of secs, but when memory is full, frames start to be overwritten. Likewise, some industrial HS cams require Frame Grabbers, and although they ensure real-time streaming most likely it would be impossible to save all frames because we are limited by the speed of the hard-drive when it is saving the files. Any input would be appreciated. Have a nice day =)

Brian Healy

Looking at the video, the gloves weren't held super rigidly. I think the inertia of the glove is enough that even on a track, or free floating, the ball would just tear through it. The glove doesn't have time to start moving backwards when the ball hits it.

Brian Healy

Ok so I see 2 problems to solve: 1: have the glove not break; 2: slow the ball down to catch it. For 1, I think there's just no good way to do it with a regulation glove. Maybe a glove can handle 200mph? So you'd slow the ball down with a bunch of ballistic gel / water, or speed the glove up with your rocket sled. I think I'd go away from a regulation glove and make one out of sturdier stuff. Maybe Kevlar but I'm thinking actually steel. Betcha the ball hits hard enough to make the steel act like leather and close around the ball! For problem 2, we already know what happens if the ball just hits a metal plate. If you use the metal glove idea, maybe you could just mount it on a sacrifical wooden post that'll snap? Then the dream is the metal glove closes around the ball and both go flying, preserving the ball in the glove. Or again, you could put that on a liner track or with a bunch of ballistic gel behind it.

Gavin Kistner

Build a wheel with 2 foot (or longer) radius spokes. Put baseball gloves on the outside. 800 mph / 12+ foot circumference and you need this wheel spinning at 6000 rpm - one revolution every 10ms - for the baseball gloves you attach to the outside to be going 800 mph. Get the radius up to 3' and you "only" have to be going 3750 rpm. A wheel with 6-8 catcher's mitts on the outside should have a small enough gap for the ball to hit one of them. Angle them properly and they should be able to grab the ball. Biggest challenge: getting them not to fly off at thousands of RPM. A high speed water wheel for a very, very fast moving stream.

Blake Allen

The next challenge is not just to stop it, but to stop it using only one glove. I'm wondering if you can mount it onto long a piston/spring to slow it down over a long distance (don't they always tell you in little league to let your glove move with the ball?).

Brad Dalton

If you put the glove on a super slippery rail that gradually lost its slipperyness you could catch it and bring it to rest perhaps, failing that the tech Enterprise uses to go from Warp 9 to Impulse should also work. Scotty, your thoughts would be welcome here

D Gailey

Same. I thought it was fascinating. I have seen these on some high velocity super sonic bullet shots as well and I have always thought that it is air either collapsing, expanding or compressing in the wake of the super sonic object? The bullets however were a lot smaller so the ring wasn’t as pronounced as the ball. Either way those were some incredible shots

Woogy Monster

I'd like to see a 30mm Bushmaster Cannon on a tracking Remote Weapon Station setup at a 90 degree intersection. The collision of the round and baseball would be spectacular! Ever been to Mesa, AZ Destin?

Dan Schlangen

I've got two suggestions for the supersonic baseball cannon. Firstly, the air blast that follows the ball is a clear problem (no pun intended). You can fix that with an angled shield that has a hole for the ball to pass thru, but deflects the majority of the air blast - the air blast seems to disperse fairly widely not too far from the muzzle. Secondly, to slow the baseball gradually with limited damage you could use a long pipe - the ball would enter the pipe and begin compressing the air inside. The engineering challenges are: What ID pipe, of what material? How long will the pipe have to be? What temperature might be reached? Does the pipe have to be straight, or will bends help slough speed?

Dillon Allen

Thought on fire: most hydrocarbons will combust under substantial dynamic compression (see Rudolph Diesel). You can basically burn any Cx-Hy molecule in a diesel if you can pump it into the cylinder and compress it enough. My guess is that the fire in the impact is from the compression of oils in the leather or from compression of the nylon thread. Once the pressure falls off there's nothing to keep the reaction going... Just like diesel (you can throw a lot match in it and it's too heavy to burn). I'm happy to volunteer to support additional testing. :) Compression-based combustion has to make for a good future SED.

Tom Murphy

My wood turning lathe goes up to 3000 RPM, its fast but not that fast (in angular velocity terms)... when you go 3 foot out, then yeah.. the glove is going to be going fast hahah... but my point is that its not all that hard to find a motor that can do 3k+ rpm....

ChalkyChalkson

How close would you move the shields to the ball? Messing with the shock cone seems like a good way to increase drag quite a bit (since the ball needs to do the work to rebuild the shockcone afterwars).

Steven Veliquette

Another way to combat this problem would be to add a suppressor like device at the end of the barrel. Suppressors give the gas or airflow at the end of the barrel baffles to flow through, slowing them down and dispersing them.

Blair McLeod

I have now learned that if I were to fire a supersonic cow at another cow, they would catch fire, thank you Destin, and I want your cannon.