How much force would it require to obliterate a baseball bat?

[promeus]

Just a simple question,I would like to know how much force or energy it would take to break or obliterate a standard sized baseball bat made of maple.

A hammer would be the tool for this.

If possible could you explain the process used to calculate this and post the energy in joules?

 

[soothsayer]

There's really no accurate or easy way to calculate this using formulas. It pretty much has to be determined experimentally.

 

[promeus]

Okay,in that case let's assume that the bat is a maple cylinder and let's assume the diameter is 2.75 inches and that the length of the thick part is 40 inches. The cylinder is also completely made of maple. With the density being 436 kg^3 where would i go from here on out to determine the energy required to break the bat.

 

[Pkruse]

It would be fairly easy to calculate breaking force for a slowly applied load. But an impact of very short duration greatly complicates matters. Hence the need for empirical measurements.

 

[A.T.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFlEIybC7rU