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It was a bright sunny day at the baseball field, and the only things brighter than it were the arrogant smiles smeared over the away team. The home team, the pride of Bluefield High, was down three innings to none. There was no hope for them, no hope except maybe for the tiny, thin boy at the edge of their bench.
“Slow, you’ll start the next inning”, said the coach.
The boy blinked. The coach was calling for him? To actually play, in a real game? He stood up, a nervous smile on his face. He could feel the intense stares of his teammates. It was his first time in a game, he knew, but now was the time to prove why he was on the team in the first place.
The pitcher raised his hand, lifting the ball. Slow held the bat, ready to strike. The pitcher angled his body, and in one lightning fast motion, threw it straight at Slow. And suddenly, Slow could see!
“The ball is travelling at 22.3 meters per second , at an initial angle of 24.1 degrees upwards, and is 18.39 meters away. Therefore, according to the formula t = 2d / vf - vi, assuming vi = 76.2cos(24.1), and vf = -vi, I should have 0.57 seconds to decide the best way to hit the ball.” Slow could see the numbers in his head, whizzing far faster than the world around him. “The wind is blowing 23 degrees north of east, and the ball is making 1.7 rotations per second counter-clockwise. The outfields are in their standard positions, their maximum acceleration is standard as well, so if I angle the bat just so and use a force of around 17000 Newtons…”
His teachers, his classmates, his teammates, all of them told him he was insane. They said those physics formulas were for the classroom, and that it was impossible to use them when a ball was already flying towards you. But Slow knew better, better than any of them. Math of a God-level cheat, and it would make him the greatest baseball player the world had ever seen! And so he readied his arms and prepared to strike the ball, the strike that would launch him straight into history…
SMASH…
At a speed of 37.6 meters per second, the ball hit Slow right between his eyes. He hadn’t even started his swing. The ball was a little disappointed as it fell to the ground.