World's Longest Home Run (The "Mad Batter" Machine) - Smarter Every Day 230 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00- [Destin] Oh dear me.
2. 0:03- [Jeremy] I'll let you know!
3. 0:06(machine whirring)
4. 0:12- Ready?
5. 0:17Oh my goodness.
6. 0:19(bat snaps) (laughs)
7. 0:22(Smarter Every Day Intro music)
8. 0:26The major league baseball home run distance record
9. 0:28is around 575 to 580 something feet,
10. 0:30depending on where you get your data.
11. 0:32Today on "Smarter Every Day",
12. 0:33we're gonna try to beat that with engineering.
13. 0:35We know that major leaguers swing the bat
14. 0:37at about 90 miles an hour,
15. 0:38and so you get this exit velocity that's really high.
16. 0:41I don't know what it is, 100 something miles per hour.
17. 0:43We have devised an apparatus,
18. 0:45my buddy Jeremy Fielding's
19. 0:46been working on it for months now.
20. 0:47We got a three phase generator hooked up to a huge motor
21. 0:50and a pulley system that gives us the right gear reduction
22. 0:53so that we can spin this bat at crazy velocities.
23. 0:56We're on this little league baseball field
24. 0:58that I played on when I was a kid.
25. 0:59We're gonna try to crank some homers at over 600 feet
26. 1:02and see if we can beat the home run distance record,
27. 1:05hopefully even put one back in those cows.
28. 1:06Alright, I'm Destin.
29. 1:07Let's go get smarter every day.
30. 1:09First thing was to get everything off the truck
31. 1:11and to get it over to the batter's box
32. 1:13and begin to line it up
33. 1:14and take into account where the sun is
34. 1:16so that we can get the right slow motion footage
35. 1:17and what angle we wanted to set the bat to.
36. 1:21Oh yeah, it's about to get crazy.
37. 1:23I'd like to stop and acknowledge
38. 1:25the ongoing launch angle discussion.
39. 1:27This is an entire field of study
40. 1:28having to do with the exact angle of attack
41. 1:31that you need to swing the bat at
42. 1:33in order to impact the ball at just the right position
43. 1:36and get the right exit velocity
44. 1:37in order to put these balls over the fence.
45. 1:39This is an entire thing.
46. 1:41Unfortunately, the reality for us at this moment
47. 1:43is that we're just trying to point at the fence
48. 1:45and swing a bat as fast as we can.
49. 1:47Where are we gonna be, dude?
50. 1:49(Jeremy) - I don't know,
51. 1:50but I want to be outside the fence, wherever else.
52. 1:51- If the ball comes off the bat like we expect,
53. 1:53then death will be imminent for the pitcher, which is me.
54. 1:57Hopefully this will stop any splintered bat
55. 1:59and or 200 mile an hour baseball.
56. 2:02We'll see.
57. 2:03Alright, here we go.
58. 2:0480 miles an hour, let's see if we can hit the bat.
59. 2:06(baseball whizzing by and hitting the backstop)
60. 2:07So the problem with this whole set up
61. 2:09is we have no active feedback
62. 2:10because the batter can move the bat as he swings, we can't
63. 2:14so we're just gonna throw it a ton of times
64. 2:16and hope that we get one that just lines up just perfect
65. 2:18because then it's sailing.
66. 2:20That's it, money shot, let's do it.
67. 2:23What just happened?
68. 2:25Okay, low speed swing test.
69. 2:30Good.
70. 2:32- Yes, that's about as high as I want to go
71. 2:33if we're standing here.
72. 2:35- That, but 200 miles an hour, that's next.
73. 2:37The problem is, Jeremy realized
74. 2:39we weren't getting full power
75. 2:40from the industrial generator we rented to run this thing.
76. 2:43Now is probably a really good time
77. 2:44to explain to you who Jeremy Fielding is.
78. 2:45Jeremy Fielding and I became friends at ThinkerCon
79. 2:48where we realized we were both dads
80. 2:50who loved to build things.
81. 2:51Jeremy has his own YouTube channel about mechanical design
82. 2:54and he's really good with electric motors,
83. 2:56so it's super fun to learn about this stuff from him,
84. 2:59especially when he's trouble shooting the equipment.
85. 3:01- We've only got 30 volts between lines one and three.
86. 3:04- So one of your legs is out? - [Jeremy] Yep.
87. 3:06- The power that comes out of the wall in your house
88. 3:08is called single phase power.
89. 3:09It's a sign wave that goes up and down,
90. 3:11and everywhere there's a dip in the power,
91. 3:13that represents a little spot in time
92. 3:15where there's no torque on a motor.
93. 3:17Nikola Tesla was a genius,
94. 3:18and he came up with a very clever way to get around this.
95. 3:21It's called three phase power.
96. 3:22As one of the sign waves dropped down,
97. 3:24another sign wave which is offset
98. 3:26120 degrees out of phase will be rising,
99. 3:29so you always have sign waves rising
100. 3:31to cover those gaps in torque.
101. 3:34So, instead of three wires, if you use four wires,
102. 3:37you can use the Tesla method, you can use three wave power
103. 3:39and get way more torque on your motor.
104. 3:41- See I was right, I was only getting single phase
105. 3:43and that's because it's set to single phase.
106. 3:46So that's what we want.
107. 3:47- So that's the faster button?
108. 3:49- (laughs) That's the faster button, yeah.
109. 3:51- 50%, go! - Okay, E-Stop is OFF.
110. 3:55(machine whirring)
111. 4:00[It sounds like a helicopter]
112. 4:02- Holy cow.
113. 4:06It's just like a helicopter.
114. 4:07You ready?
115. 4:13Oh my goodness.
116. 4:16All right, grounder to shortstop.
117. 4:18[Rattling, and breaking]
118. 4:21Holy cow!
119. 4:25(laughs)
120. 4:27We broke a bat.
121. 4:28- You broke a bat on the first try!
122. 4:31- Well we didn't get the high speed of the bat breaking,
123. 4:33however it did break where we expected.
124. 4:36The stress concentration right here,
125. 4:38that's where we expected the bat to break.
126. 4:40So if it went that way,
127. 4:41then as the bat was bending that would be in tension
128. 4:44and that's exactly what we have, a tension break.
129. 4:47Yeah, okay.
130. 4:4850% power?
131. 4:50- I think so, it might have been a little over 50%.
132. 4:52I was trying to look at the number and I went past it
133. 4:55and was trying to back up,
134. 4:56so not quite sure where I ended up.
135. 4:58- Okay, I didn't tell Trent when to trigger,
136. 4:59I messed that up.
137. 5:00Okay, so we'll set up aluminum bats?
138. 5:02- [Jeremy] Yeah.
139. 5:03- Okay, aluminum bats, here we go.
140. 5:04So while Jeremy fixed the machine
141. 5:05and attached the metal bats,
142. 5:06I decided to work on upgrading my battle station.
143. 5:08So after seeing the wooden bat fly off,
144. 5:11we're gonna repurpose this for a little extra shielding.
145. 5:15I'm not gonna lie, this feels like
146. 5:16the best idea we've had out of this whole thing.
147. 5:20Okay, here we go aluminum.
148. 5:22Let's do it!
149. 5:23- All the way?
150. 5:24- Go 75%. - 75?
151. 5:26- No, just do it man, go all the way!
152. 5:28- [Jeremy] Okay! - All the way!
153. 5:30- All the way, 100%.
154. 5:32- 100%, scary as junk, here we go.
155. 5:38Oh dear me.
156. 5:42- [Jeremy] I'll let you know!
157. 5:47- Holy cow, ready?
158. 5:53Oh my goodness.
159. 5:55(bat snaps)
160. 5:57(laughs)
161. 5:59- Did we throw a bat? - It's over the fence!
162. 6:02- What? - That was so scary dude.
163. 6:06Okay, what failed, the bolts?
164. 6:09- I think it did.
165. 6:10- No, I think the end of the bat failed and it slipped out.
166. 6:13- There's no way the end of the bat failed.
167. 6:15- [Jeremy] Yeah. - No!
168. 6:16- Wasn't looking at the bat, but that's what it looks like.
169. 6:18You look at the grip over there, it's still intact.
170. 6:21It slid out of the handle.
171. 6:24- It's 70% done. - No, no.
172. 6:27- I can't believe.
173. 6:28- Dude, it went over the fence man.
174. 6:30- I know! (laughter)
175. 6:32- It was so graceful too.
176. 6:33- It was so fast and I didn't even,
177. 6:35I was in shock for a few seconds like wait,
178. 6:36what happened?
179. 6:37- [Destin] I didn't even get to pitch at it.
180. 6:39- [Trent] Okay, so look, ooh!
181. 6:42- [Destin] What happened?
182. 6:43- [Jeremy] Yeah, the end of the bat!
183. 6:44- [Destin] Wow, it's still there.
184. 6:47What? - [Jeremy] Yeah!
185. 6:48- [Destin] What?
186. 6:48Okay, so this one's full aluminum, right?
187. 6:52- [Jeremy] Yes.
188. 6:53- [Destin] Oh, that one's plastic!
189. 6:55- [Jeremy] No! - [Destin] Yeah!
190. 6:57- Oh man, okay. - Okay.
191. 7:00- Well now we know.
192. 7:01- Oh dude, are we done?
193. 7:03We're done. - I think we're done.
194. 7:06I gotta check that bearing before I spin it up again.
195. 7:09- Oh dude, we're done.
196. 7:11We have a home run bat though,
197. 7:13let's go see the home run bat.
198. 7:14Before we find the bat, let's look at a couple camera angles
199. 7:16and see how it got there.
200. 7:19(machine whirs) (bat snaps)
201. 7:33In this particular angle,
202. 7:34you can see that the bat and the shadow
203. 7:36go flying by in just a couple of frames
204. 7:41and it's clear in this shot that my attempt to duck
205. 7:43comes well after the bat was gone.
206. 7:50And as you can see here,
207. 7:51the imbalance of only having one bat left on the shaft
208. 7:54really mangled the machine.
209. 7:59Holy moly, okay.
210. 8:04Look at that.
211. 8:06It's a home run bat.
212. 8:07Like, I don't think we could,
213. 8:12that's as far as I could throw it.
214. 8:13I can't even make it back to the fence, that's crazy.
215. 8:16How far did the bat go?
216. 8:17- [Jeremy] 581 feet. - [Destin] Are you serious?
217. 8:20- [Jeremy] Yes.
218. 8:21- That's like, okay Babe Ruth hit,
219. 8:23was it 575? - 575.
220. 8:24Yes, that's all.
221. 8:25- So we just threw the bat
222. 8:26further than the major league ball record.
223. 8:29- Yes. - Okay, nice.
224. 8:30Okay, now let's get a ball there.
225. 8:32Now truth be told, there's a tension break here.
226. 8:34I should have learned this lesson with Mark Rober
227. 8:36when we did the rocket powered golf club, but I didn't.
228. 8:40(machine whirring)
229. 8:43Where's the club? (laughter)
230. 8:49- Like I'm laughing, but that could have been bad.
231. 8:53- The next thing we're gonna attempt here,
232. 8:54we have this other bat
233. 8:55and it actually has an aluminum handle.
234. 8:57You can tell by filing off here,
235. 8:59you can see that that's actually metal.
236. 9:01The question is,
237. 9:02how is the attachment point between here and here?
238. 9:04I assume it's welded,
239. 9:05but we're gonna see if we can fix this thing
240. 9:07and give it another shot, maybe ramp up 50%, 75%,
241. 9:10and see if we can get a homer before we go crazy with it.
242. 9:14So for day two, we made a bunch of repairs
243. 9:16and added an important feature, a wobble switch.
244. 9:18Spinning it up.
245. 9:22So if you shake it?
246. 9:26So any acceleration like that switches the relay off
247. 9:30so that it kills it. - You got it.
248. 9:31- This time we drilled the handles themselves
249. 9:33and put a pin in there
250. 9:34to try to keep the bat from flying off the shaft
251. 9:36and once again,
252. 9:37I feel like I need to upgrade the safety precautions.
253. 9:39I feel protected now.
254. 9:41Okay, everybody's behind steel, here we go.
255. 9:43Pretty much right out of the gate, at 50% power,
256. 9:45we hit a dinger that went right over the fence.
257. 9:48Dinger!
258. 9:49Okay, that definitely was not a home run record,
259. 9:51but it was a home run.
260. 9:52That's 50% speed.
261. 9:54(machine whirs)
262. 10:01Right off the end of the bat.
263. 10:03So we didn't even hit it at the right angle.
264. 10:07We're gonna be able to do it.
265. 10:08- Oh yeah, when we connect perfectly--
266. 10:10- It's gone. - It's gonna go.
267. 10:12- Okay, so we tried to do just that.
268. 10:14We ended up pitching and hitting a ton of baseballs.
269. 10:18(laughs) Homer!
270. 10:21I've played ball my whole life
271. 10:22and anyone who knows the game well,
272. 10:23you can tell what's going on simply at the crack of the bat.
273. 10:27(ball hits)
274. 10:29Hit it off the bottom of the barrel and you get grounders.
275. 10:33(ball hits)
276. 10:34Hit it off the top of the barrel
277. 10:35and you get a high fly ball. (ball hits)
278. 10:43Hit it too late in the rotation,
279. 10:45you get insane 400 foot foul balls.
280. 10:49(machine whirs) (ball hits)
281. 10:59The bat and the ball were doing things
282. 11:00I have never seen at any level of the game.
283. 11:03If you've ever played center field,
284. 11:05listen to how hard this thing is hit.
285. 11:07(ball hits)
286. 11:09(laughter) (yelling)
287. 11:13Did you see how fast it got to the field?
288. 11:16We started ramping up the power
289. 11:18and things started getting insane.
290. 11:20From the mound, it was absolutely terrifying.
291. 11:23(machine whirs) (ball hits)
292. 11:28Where'd it go?
293. 11:29And on top of that, we started breaking bats.
294. 11:32Time for another bat.
295. 11:33In the majors, the fastest exit velocity ever recorded
296. 11:35was around 120 miles per hour.
297. 11:38Most players average in the mid to low 90s.
298. 11:40Let's take a look at the exit velocities
299. 11:42we're dealing with here.
300. 11:43On this one, the incoming ball speed
301. 11:45is only about 50 miles per hour,
302. 11:47but the bat tip velocity is 240 miles per hour,
303. 11:52which is nuts.
304. 11:53After impact, the bat is still going 183 miles per hour.
305. 11:57The exit velocity of this baseball is 190 miles per hour.
306. 12:03That is double the average for major league baseball.
307. 12:06The data is pretty hard to find,
308. 12:07but the existing home run records
309. 12:09seem to lay down like this.
310. 12:10Mickey Mantle's so called "tape measure home run"
311. 12:13in 1953 went 565 feet.
312. 12:16Babe Ruth's shot in Detroit's Tiger Stadium
313. 12:19was measured at 575 feet
314. 12:22and Joey Meyer, who played Triple-A ball
315. 12:24for the Denver Zephyrs hit the longest verifiable home run
316. 12:27in professional baseball history at 582 feet
317. 12:30in Denver's Mile High Stadium.
318. 12:32Because we had damaged all of our bats,
319. 12:34we made the decision to just go for it.
320. 12:36Full power, 100%, everything we've got.
321. 12:39I would now like to submit for your consideration
322. 12:42what I believe to be the longest home run in history.
323. 12:46- [Jeremy] Okay, everybody ready?
324. 12:47- Yep! - Yup!
325. 12:48- [Jeremy] Okay, firing it up.
326. 12:51(machine whirring)
327. 12:56[Helicopter noises intensify]
328. 12:59[At about this speed it gets scary]
329. 13:03(ball hits, sounds like poor contact)
330. 13:06[bat speeds up between hits]
331. 13:10(ball hits)
332. 13:12(bat clatters)
333. 13:15- [Destin] That has got to be it!
334. 13:18- [Jeremy] What? - That has to be it!
335. 13:21- [Jeremy] Where'd it go?
336. 13:23- It has to be it, it almost went past the second fence.
337. 13:27That's got to be it, dude.
338. 13:28Did we break the bat? - [Jeremy] Yes!
339. 13:30- We broke the bat.
340. 13:31(machine whirs) (ball hits)
341. 13:38(bat clatters)
342. 13:41- [Destin] That has got to be it!
343. 13:44- [Jeremy] What? - That has to be it!
344. 13:47- [Jeremy] Where'd it go?
345. 13:48- It has to be it, it almost went past the second fence.
346. 13:52It's time to measure how far we hit this ball,
347. 13:54only now we don't use a tape measure, we use drones and GPS.
348. 13:58How far is it?
349. 14:00- [Jeremy] It is 696 feet.
350. 14:03- Bull, there's no way.
351. 14:05- [Jeremy] I can say it again, but that's what it says.
352. 14:07- 696 feet? (Jeremy laughs)
353. 14:11Yes sir, that's awesome!
354. 14:15So there you go.
355. 14:16We hit what I believe to be the longest home run in history
356. 14:19and yes, I realize it totally doesn't count
357. 14:22because Jeremy Fielding was on the juice
358. 14:24and by juice, of course I mean three phase power.
359. 14:27I know, that's kind of corny but I get to edit this
360. 14:29and Jeremy won't like that so I'm leaving it in.
361. 14:32Okay, so several months ago I explained
362. 14:34that "Smarter Every Day" is sponsored by Audible
363. 14:37but we went further than that.
364. 14:38I explained that required audio book listening
365. 14:41is "Skunk Works".
366. 14:43This is about the development of the SR71 Blackbird
367. 14:46and the F117 Stealth Fighter, which are amazing airplanes.
368. 14:50Everyone knows the SR71 is better.
369. 14:52However, I have some sad news.
370. 14:54So I have data of everyone who went
371. 14:57and downloaded "Skunk Works".
372. 14:59I have to publicly call out some people
373. 15:01who did not go get "Skunk Works" and listen to it,
374. 15:04we're gonna have to do that now.
375. 15:05So, if I call your name,
376. 15:06you need to go to audible.com/smarter
377. 15:09or text the word Smarter to 500-500
378. 15:12and download "Skunk Works".
379. 15:13Okay, you ready?
380. 15:14Andrew, you did not download "Skunk Works".
381. 15:17I'm gonna need you to do that.
382. 15:18Sarah, Jeremy...
383. 15:20Jeremy?
384. 15:21Jeremy, did you download "Skunk Works"?
385. 15:23- [Jeremy in the distance] Yes..?
386. 15:24- You're good, I'll take you off the list.
387. 15:26Noah, Megan, Benjamin.
388. 15:28If you did not download "Skunk Works"
389. 15:30by going to audible.com/smarter
390. 15:32or texting Smarter to 500-500,
391. 15:34I'm just gonna need you to do that.
392. 15:35Obviously, this is a joke, however this is an amazing book.
393. 15:39I don't know if you know about the development
394. 15:40of the SR71 and the F117, but it's an amazing story.
395. 15:45Overcoming aerospace engineering challenges,
396. 15:47you will love this book, I promise you.
397. 15:50So, please consider going to download that
398. 15:52at audible.com/smarter
399. 15:54or texting the word Smarter to 500-500.
400. 15:56You could also get two free audible originals
401. 15:58or just get any audiobook of your choice.
402. 16:01I mean, there's all kinds of stuff.
403. 16:02You can use Audible to reclaim your time and your commute,
404. 16:07and get smarter, you're gonna dig it.
405. 16:08So, big thanks to Audible for supporting this.
406. 16:10Thank you to you for watching this video.
407. 16:12I mean, it was really fun
408. 16:14but I'm really excited to have you here.
409. 16:16Please consider subscribing.
410. 16:17We have a big thing coming up.
411. 16:19We're gonna do a, well do you want a teaser?
412. 16:22Here's a teaser.
413. 16:23Yeah, look at that, it's amazing.
414. 16:24Okay, that's all you get to see.
415. 16:26This is gonna be awesome.
416. 16:27I would love it if you would subscribe.
417. 16:29If you feel like the video you just watched
418. 16:31earned that subscription,
419. 16:32I would love it if you would do that and ring the bell.
420. 16:34If not, that's cool, no big deal,
421. 16:36maybe I will earn it next time,
422. 16:37but I think you're gonna dig what I have coming up
423. 16:40and I would love it if you don't miss that.
424. 16:42Anyway, I'm Destin, thanks for being here,
425. 16:44I appreciate you, you're getting smarter every day.
426. 16:47Have a good one, bye.