What Is the Coefficient of Restitution for a Baseball Hitting a Human at 100mph?

[Pooty]

I have been trying to find this on the internet but am having no luck. What do you guys think the coefficient of restitution for a baseball hitting a human beings body would be if the baseball were traveling at 100mph and the baseball player that it hit were stationary. I know it's hard to estimate but maybe you guys would have some good guidance. Thanks.

 

[mpaige1]

Create an experiment :-)

1) drop the ball from a known height
2) record the ball dropping using a camera horizontal to the ball and have some sort of visual reference in the background (like a pole with incremental, known heights)
3) record a few different heights and calculate the velocity of the ball just before impact and the velocity just after impact
4) find your coefficient of restitution

It might take a little bit of time but you could get a pretty reliable answer from this if done correctly. Make sure you conduct the experiment in a controlled environment (i.e. indoors, no wind, etc.) if you decide to go through with it. Here's a link to the experiment I just described. Take a look at the sources of error and try to find ways to minimize these errors.

 

[mpaige1]

Just realized I forgot the link:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/restitution.shtml