Does a curveball really curve?

Zhong-Lin Lu, William M. Keck Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology and Biomedical Engineering, proposed that the "break" in a curveball that fools some batters is a visual illusion. "Curveballs do curve," Lu says, but in a conversation with USC Pitching Coach Tom House, he explains why a perception of a sudden drop or other change in trajectory is a trick of the eye. This study was published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE. To read the whole story, please go to: http://uscnews.usc.edu/science_technology/breaking_curveball_too_good_to_be_t.... Video by Mira Zimet and Zane Fried.

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Education

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• USC
• USC College
• baseball
• curveball
• curveball trick of eye
• USC baseball
• Tom House
• Zhong-Lin Lu
• science
• research
• baseball science
• eye
• perception
• vision
• curve ball

[Songediter2000]

Go up to bat against a guy with a great curveball and tell me it doesn't curve.

[sergeantbreinholt]

What's next? Does a knuckleball really move?

[calebfireball5]

duh its in the name CURVEball

[mistgl]

@DontGetOwned8D does a change up really change?

[MrMaggotforlife13]

does it curve?!?!?!? uh when it starts out one place it ends up in another try looking at it from the pitchers veiw it curves ALOT!!

[MrElloco1979]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  What he say again?

[silverwindspirit]

Huh? How would this guy explain people actually taking a blitzball and throwing curves all Iover the ace?

[xScopedAndShot]

LOL AND THE PITCHER DOESN'T EVEN THROW A SLIDER/CURVE, IT HAD 2-SEAM MOTION! idiots.

[BobGibby45]

Go watch Bert Blyleven pitch, I think your question is answered...

[EFUgyrgyr]

@Songediter2000 Curve balls are easier to demonstrate in soccer when you actually curve the ball around an obstacle.

[EFUgyrgyr]

@sergeantbreinholt Is a fast ball really 95 mph.

[codesterx00]

@partofthepuzzle There are aerodynamic forces on the ball. Reference Kutta-Joukowski theorem. The rotating ball in the air, which is a fluid, causes lift in a direction perpendicular to the balls direction. Lift, the same force that allows airplanes to fly, also creates the curve in a curveball.