Do away with the catcher. Use a building/fence as a backstop, and the batter throws the ball back to the pitcher. A couple of people in the outfield and an infielder.

It's not like there would ever be based loaded and no stealing. So there's not really a need for everyone covering a base.

What you're describing isn't "the metric system," and is commonly done in Imperial/American standard units in some fields (e.g. kPSI or MPSI for large units of pressure). Prefixes in units aren't monopolized by SI.

Liter isn't an SI unit simply because it's not the base unit of volume. Volume is inherently just built on distance measurements, and the SI system already has the meter, ergo the base unit of volume is the cubic meter.

"Lack of coherence" means it isn't derived explicitly from a core SI unit. The fact that it can be expressed in SI units without rounding doesn't matter.

This also ties to a huge misunderstanding that people have about the metric system. The strength of SI isn't remotely related to the prefix units (i.e. the "moving the decimal point over"). Instead, the core power of the metric system is that more complicated units are all derived directly from other units; so, 1 Pascal is explicitly 1 Newton spread over 1 square meter. 1 Newton is explicitly 1 kg accelerating at a rate of 1 meter per second per second. Building on those basic units is what makes the SI system as powerful as it is, as it means you don't have weird constants that you have to factor into all of your calculations (e.g. the wonderful world of pounds-force vs. pounds-mass).

Imagine you had a belief. Something like "The world will end on November 3rd."

Now, Nov. 3rd comes and goes and the world doesn't end.

What you might think would happen is you would realize you were mistaken and admit you were wrong and move on. However, if the original belief was something very important to you, or something that you had made part of your personality, then you may have a great deal of trouble letting that belief go. You are in a state of cognitive dissonance.

It should be noted that cognitive dissonance is an almost entirely subconscious thing. If you were fully aware it was happening, it would be easier to resolve.

What can cognitive dissonance lead to? Well, in my example above the person could deny they made a prediction, insist they didn't mean the current Nov. 3rd but some future Nov. 3rd, or maybe insist the world really did "end" but in a spiritual or metaphysical way that only special people like them have noticed.

Note: my example above is (loosly) based on a real study published in a book called "When Prophesy Fails" written in the 1950's that popularized the term "cognitive dissonance."

How does 4 a side baseball work? Pitcher, catcher, first base and one kid covering the rest of the field?

You absolutely can move the decimal point to move between liters and millimeters. 1 L = 1000 mL, the decimal point has moved 3 places to the right. This is the same as 1 meter = 1000 millimeters. It’s just not moving the decimal point ONE place over.

>baseball where you need at a minimum a diamond, enough clear space for the ball to reasonably fly and a minimum of 7 fielders along with other equipment

While baseball is more difficult, you don't need the full complement to play. You need a bat and a ball and an open field, anything can be used to mark the bases. Gloves definitely help, but i have played without them. And you don't need a whole team. We've played with 4 to a side before. It's just better with the full teams of 9 to a side.

One thing is that it's dirt cheap to play. All you need is a ball and something to mark out goals, which can be just a few sticks.

Even then, it's not the most popular in every nation. America, Canada, and Australian football are more popular in their respective countries, and I believe Cricket's more popular in India.

Ah, thank you, gentleman scholar

The new rule is only 1) the four infielders must remain in the infield, so cannot move one outfield for coverage, and 2) there must be two infielders on either side of the home-second base diagonal.

In the us, at least, soccer is popular among some demographics also because, unlike basketball, where height is important, or handegg, where weight is important, soccer is pretty agnostic about body types. Makes for more enjoyable competitions.

You mean "American handegg" to differentiate it from "Commonwealth handegg" and "global kickball"

Are there different kinds of soccer or do you mean separating “American football” from “European kickball?”

Good point. Thank you!

It’s cheap to play… just need a ball to kick and an open space. So even in poor regions, it’s a sport kids can play.

I hear people all over the world use the term association football when there is a need to specify which form of football and do not want to sound like an American.

That's what everybody said at the beginning, but no. They got to be the best at what they do because of how they do it, and sometimes that doesn't mean you can just do it differently. Sometimes people would lay a bunt down in the direction with no fielder, but you'll often be happy to see the guy who can hit it 400 feet take a bunt single against you.

I do not quite agree with you about baseball. You do not need a full diamond, especially with kids who can not throw far, hit far or run far. The space needed for a variant of baseball suitable for kids is roughly the size of a small football pitch, and the amount of players the same as well. Rowing as well seams quite expensive and complex nowadays but were very accessible when waterways were a major form of transport. And still today there are places where a rowing boat is just as versatile as a car and therefore just as common. American football can also be played by kids very easy. You do not need a full team and it can be played in a smaller format with say 8 kids and just a ball. Granted it can not be played on pavement or gravel like soccer though.

I don't watch baseball. I just learned about both the ban and the reaction to the ban from this post. That being said, couldn't the batters get the same analytical data and use it during practice to build the skill of hitting that gap they naturally avoid? It would make the shifting a disadvantage. If you go up to bat and see the team shift to right field because that's where you tend to hit, you use the skill you developed during practice to hit to left field.

Wicked flame sources such as candles depend on convection to operate. Once lit, gasses in the candle's flame rise and cooler oxygenated air rushes in from the sides and below to replace it. As this new air approaches the flame it rapidly heats up, reacts with the fuel in the wick, ignites and rises, continuing the cycle. This is why the flame's colour transitions from blue (initial ignition) through orange and finally yellow (where the last of the evaporated fuel is consumed). This is also why a candle flame extends up from the wick.

Rapid air movement from blowing or clapping drastically increases the amount of air flowing past the wick, which elongates the flame and lowers the concentration of heat around the wick. Less heat near the wick reduces the rate at which its fuel vapourizes, which makes less of it available to react with the air.

The air itself absorbs heat. Slow moving air absorbs more heat per unit volume, so it more readily reaches the fuel's ignition temperature and sustains the reaction. Faster moving air absorbs less heat per unit volume, making ignition more difficult.

This is a long-winded way of explaining how blowing or clapping your hands cools the area around the wick to the point that ignition ceases.

A slight increase in airflow velocity beyond what simple convection produces actually improves ignition by making more oxygen available at the point of ignition. This is why blowing on a fire causes the embers to glow brighter and increase in temperature. But there's a tipping point beyond which the heat drawn away from the seat of the flame overcomes the more efficient ignition due to extra oxygen from the additional airflow.

Yes the good ones can. The problem is owners don’t pay for slap hitters to the opposite field. They pay for guys that can drive the ball. So over time more and more players are trying to drive the ball to get the large contracts. Eventually you don’t have players trying to go the opposite way because it is not in their financial interest.

Please read this entire message

Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):

• ELI5 does not allow guessing.

Although we recognize many guesses are made in good faith, if you aren’t sure how to explain please don't just guess. The entire comment should not be an educated guess, but if you have an educated guess about a portion of the topic please make it explicitly clear that you do not know absolutely, and clarify which parts of the explanation you're sure of (Rule 8).

If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the detailed rules first. If you believe it was removed erroneously, explain why using this form and we will review your submission.

[removed]

[removed]

Just making contact with a major league pitch is already incredibly hard to do

Making solid, hard contact is even harder

Many players do hit to both sides so they don’t get shifted by the defense, but many also focus on hitting it as hard as possible which means you give up some control over where the ball goes. The trend over the past couple decades has been to focus on hitting the ball as hard as you can rather than focusing on hitting it to a specific area of the field because the stats have shown that to be more effective.

If you’re hitting for power then you’ll naturally swing a little earlier on average because your bat speeds up through the swing, so if you hit the ball a little earlier you will hit it harder. But then it will also have the tendency to go in one direction. So a lot of power hitters tend to hit the ball to the same side of the field like 90% of the time. Batters who do this are often the best batters on their teams. Thus the defense shifts in order to limit the effectiveness of that batter.

The barrier to entry for kids is “have a ball and some space to kick it around”.

In terms of participation you don’t need a full field, you don’t need grass, you don’t need special shoes, armor, uniforms, gymnasiums, an indoor space, etc etc. You don’t even need a goal - a couple of bags to mark the goal is fine. Kids don’t even need any particular supervision due to low contact nature, and versions of it can be played with almost any number of people and in parallel with other activities.

Compare to, say, baseball where you need at a minimum a diamond, enough clear space for the ball to reasonably fly and a minimum of 7 fielders along with other equipment. Or rowing where you need a boat, boathouse, river, and a whole team to turn up, or American football where you can kinda play but almost all variants require a fair number of people each time and a marked field of some description, or ice hockey where you need sticks, skates, and a fucking ice rink.

Adding: Association Football has heavily embraced an actual league system with promotions and relegations, and the league tiers extend all the way down to random pub and village teams. This enables widespread active participation in the sport at every ability level with a continuous line from playing on some local social team to the premiership football players at the top of the sport, providing a level of connection between fans and pro players that helps drive fan engagement.