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What makes a baseball Curve?
A baseball moves in one direction or another because of the wake of air surrounding it as it flies. If the ball were smooth, the wake would be the same on each side and the flight would only be affected by gravity. But the raised seams on the ball disrupt the wake unevenly. With one side of the ball spinning in the same direction as the air rushing by, and the other side spinning against the wind, the air becomes turbulent. There is a difference in air resistance between the two sides of the ball. According to a principle described by Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli in 1738, the ball moves in the direction of least pressure, toward the direction it is spinning. The slower the pitch is thrown, the more spin can be put on the ball. And the more spin, the more curve (up to a point).
For many years, it was believed that curveballs, screwballs, sliders, and so on were merely optical illusions. But strobe photos, computer models, and wind tunnel tests have proven what hitters and pitchers have known for more than a century.
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