Answer 1:
I had to do some research on this, since I'm
more of a football fan,myself... ;-) It looks
like it would be very difficult to set up a really
good experiment comparing the two, since the
speed of the bat depends on a lot of factors that
are difficult to control in an experiment.
Here's what I've learned about the advantages
of the two types of bats:
Aluminum bats are lighter, which makes it
easier to swing faster and also makes it
easier to control the bat. This can even give
the batter a chance to wait longer before swinging
and make some last-second adjustments to a pitch.
Wooden bats, on the other hand, are
heavier, which makes it harder to achieve the same
bat speed and harder to control the motion of the
bat. The trade-off is that the wooden
bat's collision with the ball is more effective
than the aluminum bat's collision. A wooden
bat moving at the same speed as an aluminum bat
will make the ball go farther, since the wooden
back has less "recoil" and also more
momentum.
Even if the bats had the same overall weight,
the weight of the wooden mass is mainly in the
barrel, while the weight of the aluminum bat is
more evenly distributed over the whole bat. The
weight of the bat in the region where the ball is
hit would still be much higher in the case of a
wooden bat, so it would still provide a more
effective hit. What that all means in the end
is that what bat is best to use is pretty much
a matter of personal preference.
Aluminum bats are easier to
control and to swing faster, but wooden bats have
the potential to hit the ball more effectively and
thus make it go farther.
In an experiment withthe bats moving at the
exact same speed, thewooden bat should win, but in
a real-world situation, the increased control for
an aluminum bat can allow the batter to make a
"cleaner" hit and send the ball farther. Hope that
helps out!
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