Baseball - The Knuckleball

A knuckleball is a pitch thrown by a pitcher which does not spin and seemingly dances towards the plate. Its name comes from how it is thrown, with the knuckles instead of with the whole finger. It dances because with the "little rotation, asymmetric stitch configurations can be generated that lead to a large imbalance of forces and extraordinary excursions in trajectory." Since the ball is thrown with little velocity (usually a speed around 60-65 mph), the ball has more time to "dance" its way to the plate. Also, the fact that drag is actually more on a smooth ball rather than a rough ball (like a baseball), the ball has more of an opportunity to dance its way towards the batter. The problem that pitchers, catchers, and batters have (also its effectiveness), is that no one knows where it will possibly go. This results in many walks by the pitcher, passed balls (errors by the catcher), and horrible-looking swings by the batter.