Getting the Swing of Surface Gravity

TL;DR

This paper presents a student-designed project using baseball to illustrate the differences in surface gravity across the Earth, Sun, and other solar-system bodies, making physics concepts engaging and accessible.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, student-driven approach to teaching surface gravity through a fun baseball-based experiment involving multiple celestial bodies.

Findings

Demonstrates differences in surface gravity using baseball experiments

Engages students with hands-on, relatable physics activities

Provides an accessible way to visualize planetary gravity variations

Abstract

Sports are a popular and effective way to illustrate physics principles. Baseball in particular presents a number of opportunities to motivate student interest and teach concepts. Several articles have appeared in this journal on this topic, illustrating a wide variety of areas of physics. In addition, several websites and an entire book are available. In this paper we describe a student-designed project that illustrates the relative surface gravity on the Earth, Sun and other solar-system bodies using baseball. We describe the project and its results here as an example of a simple, fun, and student-driven use of baseball to illustrate an important physics principle.