Radar/Speed gun
- Thread starter Rowdy
- Start date
If your in a league Im sure you can find a cop among you that will do it for free.
Heres a few tips.
1st, make sure u get one that measures as low as 10 mph's some baseball guns only go
as low as 25mph and the average breaker will never hit 25mph.
2nd, try to buy on that measures down to the 10th of a mile an hour. 20.0 mph is way different than 20.9 mph. Changing grip and stance wont always give you a whole mph difference and without the smaller units of measure its harder to see the effect the changes have on your speed.
just keep those things in mind when shopping. Ive got a radar gun here at home and I love it. Pair that with a breakrak and your set for life. And everyone loves to see there speed when they come over. We get together and put side bets on who can hit the highest in 3 tries, just to break up the monatany.
1st, make sure u get one that measures as low as 10 mph's some baseball guns only go
as low as 25mph and the average breaker will never hit 25mph.
2nd, try to buy on that measures down to the 10th of a mile an hour. 20.0 mph is way different than 20.9 mph. Changing grip and stance wont always give you a whole mph difference and without the smaller units of measure its harder to see the effect the changes have on your speed.
just keep those things in mind when shopping. Ive got a radar gun here at home and I love it. Pair that with a breakrak and your set for life. And everyone loves to see there speed when they come over. We get together and put side bets on who can hit the highest in 3 tries, just to break up the monatany.
There was an interesting bit on one of the ESPN televised matches, doing just that; measuring the break speed of various pros.
Interesting: Break speeds were between 20 and 25 mph. Reason stated; 6 feet is NOT enough time for the cue ball to accelerate to higher speeds!
Commentators: good people but bad physicists (physicists are barely people, right?).
The acceleration happens only during the time/distance the cue stick is in contact with the CB, maybe a few hundreths of a second and maybe a few inches. Generally any object can accelerate to any speed over any distance if the force is high enough. IMO, this is a human limit, not a distance limit.
On the radar gun question, are traffic guns safe at close range? I don't know, but I would check that out. I prefer the camera approach: there would be other benefits where you could see form, etc.
Use Your Laptop to Measure Break Speed
You can measure your break speed very easily with a laptop and an audio recording program like WavePad.
1. Measure the distance between the CB and the head ball.
2. Record the sound of your break using your laptop's built-in microphone.
3. Look at the soundwave graphic of your recording, which will show two peaks: one at the moment your stick hits the CB and another at the moment the CB hits the head ball.
4. See how much time (in 1/100ths of a second) elapsed between the first and second peaks.
5. To get MPH, convert the inches to miles and the 100ths of a second to hours with this formula:
inches divided by inches per mile (5,280 x 12)
divided by
100ths of seconds divided by 100ths of a second per hour (100 x 60 x 60)
Here's an example:
In this example the elapsed time is 11/100ths of a second. Let's say the distance from the CB to the head ball is 50 inches. Then the MPH is:
50/(5,280x12) divided by 11/(100x60x60) = 25.83 MPH
I think this method is probably much more accurate than a speed gun - I'm guessing it's accurate to at least 1 MPH.
pj
chgo
You can measure your break speed very easily with a laptop and an audio recording program like WavePad.
1. Measure the distance between the CB and the head ball.
2. Record the sound of your break using your laptop's built-in microphone.
3. Look at the soundwave graphic of your recording, which will show two peaks: one at the moment your stick hits the CB and another at the moment the CB hits the head ball.
4. See how much time (in 1/100ths of a second) elapsed between the first and second peaks.
5. To get MPH, convert the inches to miles and the 100ths of a second to hours with this formula:
inches divided by inches per mile (5,280 x 12)
divided by
100ths of seconds divided by 100ths of a second per hour (100 x 60 x 60)
Here's an example:
In this example the elapsed time is 11/100ths of a second. Let's say the distance from the CB to the head ball is 50 inches. Then the MPH is:
50/(5,280x12) divided by 11/(100x60x60) = 25.83 MPH
I think this method is probably much more accurate than a speed gun - I'm guessing it's accurate to at least 1 MPH.
pj
chgo
Last edited:
This comes up every couple years. Here is the LONG THREAD from many moons ago. I have the Bushnell Speedster and it works fine - it now costs around $80.00. It measures whole numbers only, but I don't believe measuring decimal places is necessary for this application. You can find a more accurate device, but look to spend maybe 10 times more. Also, your location can have a big impact on final reading, so be sure you are standing in the right place.
-td
I was looking into it and I thought this one for $134 was perfect.
http://www.astroproducts.net/speedchek2.htm
You can mount it on a tri pod slightly above the table level or just rest it on the edge of the table end behind the rack (but out of the way of a flying cue ball). It's continuous and has a large immediate dispaly, with a high degree of accuracy. 6 - 150 MPH, portable.
It can also be used for baseball, soccer, etc.
Chris