the springiness of corked bats, Artemious Fowl, and languages

[joywitch_m_curmudgeon]

In answer to Cindy's question, there is no such thing, in physics, 
as "springiness."  The writer may have been confusing it with the 
concept of potential energy, which is stored in a compressed object 
such as a spring or maybe cork, but that would be irrelevant in the 
case of a corked bat, since it is the wood that is hitting the ball 
and not any sort of matter that compresses.

Anyway, the only impact of corking the bat is to make the bat 
lighter, which doesn't really help the batter because it tends to 
decrease the mass (of the bat) more than it increases the speed (of 
the bat as the batter swings it), so that the resulting force of the 
impact between the bat and the ball is lower, not higher, and as a 
result the distance the ball is hit is decreased, not increased.  So 
using a corked bat is probably counterproductive, although as someone 
already said, the increased speed of the bat means that the player 
can wait a little bit longer before he swings, which is an 
advantage.  But you're talking about a game which is full of 
superstition, so the myth of the corked bat may be more important 
than the reality.

But, really, Cindy is right.  Why the hell doesn't Sosa paint his 
practice bats red or something?

As for Artemious Fowl, I read the first one a couple of years ago and 
loved it but I had bought it for someone else so I haven't been able 
to reread it.  I just bought the first and second ones and I am 
really looking forward to rereading/reading them.  A lot of my HP 
buddies don't seem to like those books, though, so no guarantees.

Just a note for the person who is inventorying languages -- there are 
3 Spanish versions of HP.  There is a Catalan version, a Spanish 
Castillian version, and a Latin American Castillian version.

--Joywitch, who is also a diehard Mets fan