Scientists straighten out baseball's curve ball

William Atkins
Thursday, 18 June 2009 18:05

Science - Biology

The batter sees the ball leave the pitcher’s fingers with the central system, but as it gets closer to the plate, the peripheral system takes over.

Somewhere along the trajectory of the ball, the changeover from the central visual system to the peripheral visual system appears to make the ball suddenly change its flight path.

It suddenly jumps. Oftentimes, it’s the ultimate demise of the unwary batter.

Now, that you know what happens, will baseball batters be better able to judge the flight of a curve ball? Mmmm, I wonder?

The top ten finalists of the 2009 Best Illusion of the Year award is found here.

The reasons why the illusion/vision contest is held is explained at "About the Contest."

In part, it states, "The contest is a celebration of the ingenuity and creativity of the world’s premier visual illusion research community. Visual illusions are those perceptual experiences that do not match the physical reality. Our perception of the outside world is generated indirectly by brain mechanisms, and so all visual perception is illusory to some extent. The study of visual illusions is therefore of critical importance to the understanding of the basic mechanisms of sensory perception, as well as to cure many diseases of the visual system."