Cricket has a lot of things that ensure to entertain and leave fans amused. No wonder, whenever there is a big game, fans leave everything and sit in front of their TV sets to witness the awesomeness.
But while watching the cricket matches, have you ever wondered why a cricketer lowers his hands when he attempts to catch the ball!
Here’s the reason:
Let us remind you that during school days in Physics we were taught about the law of inertia (Newton’s Third law of motion).
As per the law, a body continues to remain in its original state until an external force is applied to it.
In this case, a moving ball will remain in its state of movement if it’s in space. As it is in earth’s atmosphere, the ball experiences an external force from the wind and keeps on slowing down. The idea to lower the hands while catching the ball is to save it from pain or injury.
The more the ball remains in the air, the lesser force it puts as it falls in the hands of the fielder. The less the force, the lesser will be the pain while catching it.
Note: When a player tries to catch a ball instantly then all the force gets absorbed by his hand and thus he will feel the pain. For this very reason, a fielder lowers the hand so that it comes comparatively slower on the hands.
This increases the time of the ball to stop and thus there is a constant and gradual decrease in the momentum of the ball and this saves him from injuries.
