Mark Rober Uses Physics to Gain an Edge in Wiffle Ball

One of the great things about being an adult is the ability to turn silly things into serious hobbies. Cosplayers, for example, take something whimsical (fancy dress) and make it something elaborate and amazing. Wiffle ball is usually seen as a fun, low-stakes sport for kids. But adult wiffle ball leagues take the game very seriously and bring genuine athleticism to the sport. As is always the case, that becomes competitive and the best players rise to the top. Mark Rober didn't think he could compete on their level, so he turned to physics to gain an edge in wiffle ball.

Part of the reason that wiffle ball is interesting is the way that the balls fly. A wiffle ball's construction produces drag and lift that varies across its surface, which lets pitchers throw all kinds of crazy curve balls to thwart batters. But those pitches take practice and skill, so Rober had to get clever. He played fast and loose with the official wiffle ball rules, which let him build his own balls that could alter their trajectory mid-flight in order to bamboozle batters.

His first two balls relied on Newton's Third Law: that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Both of those utilized egg timer mechanisms to jettison mass mid-flight, which altered their trajectory. The first used a spring to launch a weight when the egg timer dinged. The second ball separated into two halves. In both cases, two masses pushed away from each other and altered the balls' flight paths.

Rober's third ball was actually just a small drone capable of powered flight, which meant it could create its own trajectory. Unfortunately for Rober, a batter annihilated that wiffle ball drone before it could strike out players.

Next, Rober attempted to use pure speed to his advantage. The league rules specify the maximum speed of a pitch is 74mph, so Rober constructed a handheld ball-launcher that throws balls at 73mph. That helped him gain some strikes, but the battery soon went flat.

Rober experimented with some other shenanigans, like actuating the strike zone board with pneumatics and using another ball launcher to throw balls in from the outfield. But eventually he ran out of devices and had to rely on his own pitching skill — and robotic bases that could run from players. Rober is actually a decent pitcher and got close to tying things up, and then was able to bring it home with a pneumatic strike zone that launched into the air allowing him to score the final run.