科学美国人60秒 职业棒球运动员技术化身可能会大受欢迎（在线收听）

Hall of Famer Ted Williams once famously commented that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Although Williams—a .344 career hitter—made it look easy, he had a point. Hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely is difficult. It’s also an excellent example of some very entertaining applied physics.

名人堂成员泰德·威廉姆斯曾经说过，打棒球是最难的体育运动。尽管威廉姆斯安打率.344，但他说的很有道理。用一个圆圆的棍子准确击打一个圆滚滚的球并不简单。这同时也是应用物理学一个典型的例子。

No surprise then that professional baseball players are turning to science to improve their multimillion-dollar strokes. Some approaches focus on the neuroscience of hitting—the deep internal brain mechanisms behind seeing the pitch and reacting to it. But for more info about the swing itself, a sports tech company called Zepp Labs makes a sensor that can help break down those mechanics.

专业的棒球运动员利用科学知识提高自己的价值百万美元的击球次数，这不足为奇。一些方法重点在于神经科学方面——棒球运动员在看到棒球投掷后并作出反应，这背后的原理是内部的大脑机制。关于挥动球棒更多的信息，一家叫做Zepp Labs的体育科技公司，制作了可以帮助打破头脑机制的传感器。

The sensor sits in the knob of the company’s so-called “Smart Bat” and uses two accelerometers and a three-axis gyroscope to measure bat speed, hand speed, attack angle and other factors. The sensor, which weighs only about eight grams, sends this info to a smartphone app via Bluetooth. The app can then use this data to have an onscreen avatar reenact the swing, in the hope that the batter can pick up some details and make the necessary adjustments. Zepp’s sensors can also be fitted to golf clubs and tennis rackets.

传感器位于公司制作的“智能球拍”的把手处，并利用了两个加速计以及一个三轴陀螺仪来测量球拍的速度、出手速度、攻角等其他因素。传感器仅有八克重，可以通过蓝牙将信息发送到智能手机应用程序上。手机上的应用程序可以利用接收的数据让屏幕上头像调整重新进行挥动，希望球拍可以接受一些细节信息，并做必要的调整。Zepp公司的传感器也可以安装在高尔夫球杆以及网球拍上。

Never one to mince words, Ted Williams also once said that pitchers were “the stupidest people alive.” Hmm, maybe somebody could come up with a smart baseball to help them. Against any Ted Williamses out there, anyway.

毫不避讳，泰德·威廉姆斯曾经一度表示，投手是最愚蠢的人。或许有人可以发明智能棒球来帮帮他们。这样就可以反驳泰德·威廉姆斯的言论啦~