Why are knuckle balls so hard to hit? Why do quarterbacks throw a football in a spiral? And what do we mean by ?the physics of sports??
Those questions will be answered this Thursday, Sept. 17, when Chang Kee Jung, a physics professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, delivers his presentation, ?What?s Physics Got to do with Sports?? Jung will demonstrate the effects of spinning and non-spinning balls in popular sports, including baseball, football, soccer, and volleyball. The talk, which is co-sponsored by Sanford Lab and Black Hills State University, will be held in BHSU?s Meier Hall at 5:45 p.m. There will be an opening reception at 5:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
?Sports occupy an important part of American life and life in other parts of the world,? Jung said. ?Surprisingly, many intriguing and often spectacular sports feats can be explained using basic physics concepts.? An expert in sports physics, Jung was called upon several times to discuss the ?Deflategate? controversy involving the New England Patriots.
Jung?s presentation grew from a course he developed at Stony Brook for non-physics majors: The Physics of Sports. ?My slogan for the course is that after taking my course you will watch sports very differently than you used to and with much deeper appreciation,? Jung said.
Jung is the Research Coordinator for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and associated Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE) at Sanford Lab and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). The experiment will send neutrinos through the earth from Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., to a detector on the 4850 Level of Sanford Lab.
?I?ve had the privilege of working with Chang Kee on the LBNF/DUNE project,? said Mike Headley, Executive Director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority. ?He?s an accomplished neutrino physicist, and a dynamic speaker. His presentation will provide an interesting perspective on physics.?
Jung participated in experiments based on high energy particle accelerators at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and Fermilab. He also was part of the Super-Kamiokande experiment in Japan, which was instrumental in discovering neutrino oscillation; was part of the K2K experiment, the first accelerator-based long baseline neutrino project; and T2K, the long baseline neutrino experiment that discovered the appearance of electron neutrinos from a muon neutrino beam.