For most baseball aficionados, the rules of the game are simple.

But a group of about forty spectators gathered yesterday learned otherwise. These fans weren’t holding foam fingers, eating hot dogs and chanting, “Swing batter batter swing! Instead, they sat in a physics lecture hall clutching pens and notebooks.

Professor Alan Nathan of the University of Illinois presented a thorough analysis of the connections between science and sports in his “Physics and Baseball” lecture, which was subtitled “A Report from Red Sox Nation” to show off his Boston pride.

Prior to the lecture, there was small talk amongst the audience about the impending information. Some in attendance wondered how physics and baseball could ever fit together, or how such a connection could improve the game.

For Nathan, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics from this university before attending Princeton University for graduate work, the answers to those questions come easily after studying physics in relation to baseball for over twelve years.

Nathan explained the physics of bat-ball collisions: how the bat works, wood vs. aluminum bats and putting spin on the ball. Nathan also aimed to explain the flight of a baseball: drag, lift and new tools for baseball analysis.

Many of his analyses used complicated equations, such as the equations for magnus and drag — the effect of gravity on the ball’s lift, and the effect of air and wind on the ball, respectively.

But, he used many simplifications, not to mention humor, to explain these concepts to the non-physicist.

While explaining that there is no real advantage of corking a bat — drilling a hole through a wooden bat and filling it with cork to lessen the weight — Nathan exclaimed, “Obviously Sammy Sosa never took physics 101.”

Nathan showed scatter plot after scatter plot to display the differences between Mariano Rivera’s cut fastball, C. C. Sabathia’s slider and Tim Wakefield’s famous knuckleball, information that appealed to Eric Kuo, physics graduate student, who said he attended the lecture “just because it’s baseball.”

But to appeal to those like physics graduate student Evan Berkowitz, who said he goes to the physics lectures every week because he “loves physics,” Nathan included calculations about collision efficiency, moment of inertia and trajectory.

Combining Kuo and Berkowitz’s interests, Nathan used Barry Bonds’ 758th home run to show the effect of drag and magnus. He explained that the ball was hit about 440 feet, but without drag and magnus, the ball would have gone over 700 feet.

He included his inquiry about why there were so many home runs hit at the new Yankee Stadium. Explaining that it seemed as if an outrageous number of dingers were hit in the opening season of the stadium due to drag, Nathan studied every home run hit at every Major League Baseball park last year.

He found that Yankee Stadium actually falls below the average of the amount of carry on the baseball, with Denver having the highest level and Cleveland the lowest.

Jim Griffin, a retired university physics professor, said he was surprised by the data.

“It is fun to see how this data accumulates and how it fits in with physics,” he said.

“All physicists know in their bones, when physics gets real, it gets complicated,” Griffin added.

Nathan, who called baseball his sport, said he began studying the game simply because it “came upon me that it might be an interesting way to spend all of my time.”

He has studied physics in relation to tennis and golf, as well as baseball, but he proclaimed that baseball is his favorite.

Nathan reported he has learned a lot from his studies, but the most interesting thing is something that not many people know.

“The batter could drop the bat just before contact and it would have no effect on the ball,” he said. In other words, he was amazed to find out that grip does not matter.

Nathan concluded his lecture on a note that may have dismayed a few physics students with dreams of becoming professional athletes.

“Understanding the physics of baseball will not make you play better– I am living proof,” he said.

This message was accompanied by two recent photographs of Nathan in a Red Sox uniform swinging a bat and standing in the outfield, to great audience applause.

news@umdbk.com