Aaron Judge defied the laws of physics with his home run that hit the roof of Marlins Park
Aaron Judge has something spectacular to add to his resume: Defying the laws of physics.
He already took home T-Mobile Home Run Derby honors this week, was an All-Star selection during his rookie season and leads the league in home runs. Now, he's taking on science.
During his outstanding Derby performance, the 25-year-old hit 47 home runs that measured a 3.9-mile span including a few shots that towered more than 500 feet. One of those (and a BP ball) actually managed to hit Marlins Park's roof. And according to Sports Illustrated'sTom Verducci, the engineers who designed the retractable roof made it so it could not be hit by a batter. They "set out to determine how high the roof would have to be to so as not to interfere with balls in play."
The engineer's study included air density and temperatures of Miami and they used those factors and "plugged them into equations from NASA" -- yes, NASA. Then they wrote an algorithm "to generate a volumetric approximation of all the possible batted ball flight paths, and then applied it to their Building Information Modeling to determine the final geometry of the roof structure."
The Marlins had to submit to MLB a rule on how to treat a ball if it were to come in contact with the roof. It ended up being considered an "out" if the ball hit the roof and would be treated as a live fly ball and not a home run.
The organization didn't think much of it considering it would be impossible for anyone to hit the roof, right? Well, Judge proved that wrong on Monday and defied the laws of physics. Of course he did.