How to Calculate Baseball Pitch Speed
Pitchers are often known by how fast they can throw the ball. A radar gun is most accurate, but you can also calculate the speed by hand. To calculate the speed of a pitch, you need to know the distance the ball traveled and the time it took to travel. Speeds of baseball pitches usually are measured in miles per hour. According to the "Baseball Almanac," the fastest recorded pitch was 104.6 mph by Joel Zumaya of the Detroit Tigers in 2006.
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Instructions
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Measure the distance from the mound to home plate. Professional baseball mounds are 60 feet 6 inches, and the distance in Little League is 46 feet.
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2
Use a stopwatch to calculate the time it takes for the ball to reach home plate.
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3
Calculate the ball's speed in feet per second by dividing the distance covered, found in Step 1, by the time elapsed, found in Step 2. For example, if it took a Little League pitcher 0.57 seconds to throw the ball 46 feet, it would be going about 80.7 feet per second.
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Divide the number of feet per second by 1.467 to convert the speed to mph. For example, 80.7 feet per second would be about 55 mph.
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