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My friend and I were comparing the rightness of a cricket bat versus a baseball bat for general violence purposes. (Eg, rioting.)

Where are the centers of mass for these two instruments? Which would be better for an average adult human male to, say, smash in a window or other such similar action? Would the answer be different for an average adult human female?

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Apropos rioting, center of mass is not the only issue here. Compare two classical weapons, both capable of causing violence: the (one-handed) sword tends to have the center of mass (its balance) as near the guard as possible, whereas the mace/flail/club tends to have the center of mass far from the wielder. For breaking windows, one may imaging the morning-star or other spiked clubs to be better than a non-spiked club. – Willie Wong Aug 12 '11 at 2:28
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Personally, I think this is just something you need to find the right source to look up... it's the kind of thing that I imagine would fall under the "general reference" close reason if we had that here. I don't see any nontrivial physics in it. – David Zaslavsky♦ Aug 12 '11 at 2:43
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Isn't this more a question of etiquette? surely one wouldn't use a cricket bat if one wasn't a member of the MCC – Martin Beckett Aug 13 '11 at 4:17
i think if you just want an estimate on the CofM all you need to do is look at each of the objects and you should get a fair estimate... I can't say because I don't know what the dimensions of a cricket bat are like since i've never played – Timtam Aug 13 '11 at 12:29
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Cricket is gentleman's game. You DO NOT use cricket bat for rioting. – Pratik Deoghare Aug 13 '11 at 19:53

1 Answer

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To hit a ball more interaction area is of advantage - the thinner baseball bat demands higher precision, in contrast to cricket bat. If one needs to break something, the applied pressure per area is important. Assuming same masses, the edge of the cricket bat offers smaller impact surface and has higher potential for damage. On the other hand greater length of the baseball bat allows for higher momentum.

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