Oscillations and Waves > Oscillations > Pendula
 DCS# 3A15.50 v. 2
CENTER OF PERCUSSION
APPARATUS
baseball bat 202-17-F
wooden block
 202-01-B
wooden splint, e.g. the handle of a cotton swab
 013B-02-B

DESCRIPTION
The bat is free to rotate around a thin wooden rod through a hole in its handle.  Lift and release the barrel of the bat so it falls on the block.  The thin rod will not break if the block is placed under the bat's center of percussion (the "R" in the label), and will otherwise.

NOTES

        Suspend the bat next to a simple pendulum whose length is the same as the bat's axis-to-CoP distance to show that the two have the same period.

       

Here is the older version of this demonstration that involves striking a suspended bat.

REFERENCES

Am. J. Phys. 47, 1088 (1979)

Am. J. Phys. 72, 622 (2004)