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Bringing science to life
![Professor Lloyd Smith and researcher measure a softball.](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/3198/2024/03/SportsScience_1543-vert-792x1039.jpg)
And so he did. Smith says his background in composite materials and an interest in experimental design helped him devise a way to test baseball bats. Pretty soon the federations that regulate softball and baseball were interested. Then the equipment manufacturers wanted to work with him.
![A sequence of shots overlaid to show a baseball player swinging a bats and the path of the baseball.](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/3198/2024/03/BaseballPlayer_8789-crop-792x528.jpg)
Smith says it didn’t take long to figure out that the baseballs were experiencing less drag. But measuring drag was a challenge because traditional wind tunnel tests wouldn’t account for the spinning of a baseball. Coincidentally, one of the students working in the Sports Science Laboratory had come up with a new way to measure drag by firing the ball through speed sensors.
“I certainly find baseball much more interesting now, though when I watch a game I’m looking at different things than your typical fan is.”
Lloyd Smith, Professor and researcher at Washington State University’s Sports Science Laboratory