OPTICAL ILLUSIONS AND CURVE BALLS.

OPTICAL ILLUSIONS AND CURVE BALLS. There is a long-standing contention, alluded to at the end of this wikipedia article on the curve ball, that the curve ball is an optical illusion. As described, in the article, physicists have no trouble explaining how a curve ball actually does curve. There is another puzzle. Theories of the curve ball suggest that the ball should form a smooth curve, and yet batters and announcers will speak of a curve ball “breaking” or of a “late-breaking” curve ball, suggesting a sharp movement by the ball. Now this blog post portrays an optical illusion that could produce a “break”, as the part of the eye which perceives the ball changes. (link via Baseball Musings).