Pitch (baseball)

In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. The term comes from the Knickerbocker Rules. Originally, the ball had to be literally "pitched" underhand, as with pitching horseshoes. Overhand throwing was not allowed until 1884.

The biomechanics of pitching have been studied extensively. The phases of throwing include windup, early cocking, late cocking, early acceleration, late acceleration, deceleration, and follow-through.

Pitchers throw a variety of pitches, each of which has a slightly different velocity, trajectory, movement, hand position, wrist position and/or arm angle. These variations are introduced to confuse the batter in various ways, and ultimately aid the defensive team in getting the batter or baserunners out. To obtain variety, and therefore enhance defensive baseball strategy, the pitcher manipulates the grip on the ball at the point of release. Variations in the grip cause the seams to "catch" the air differently, thereby changing the trajectory of the ball, making it harder for the batter to hit.

Flight dynamics

Flight dynamics is the study of the performance, stability, and control of vehicles flying through the air or in outer space. It is concerned with how forces acting on the vehicle influence its speed and attitude with respect to time.

In fixed-wing aircraft, the changing orientation of the vehicle with respect to the local air flow is represented by two critical parameters, angle of attack ("alpha") and angle of sideslip ("beta"). These angles describe the vector direction of airspeed, important because it is the principal source of modulations in the aerodynamic forces and moments applied to the aircraft.

Spacecraft flight dynamics involve three forces: propulsive (rocket engine), gravitational, and lift and drag (when traveling through the earths or any other celestial atmosphere). Because aerodynamic forces involved with spacecraft flight are very small, this leaves gravity as the dominant force.

Aircraft and spacecraft share a critical interest in their orientation with respect to the earth horizon and heading, and this is represented by another set of angles, "yaw," "pitch" and "roll" which angles match their colloquial meaning, but also have formal definition as an Euler sequence. These angles are the product of the rotational equations of motion, where orientation responds to torque, just as the velocity of a vehicle responds to forces. For all flight vehicles, these two sets of dynamics, rotational and translational, operate simultaneously and in a coupled fashion to evolve the vehicle's state (orientation and velocity) trajectory.

Pitch (ascent/descent)

In rock climbing and ice climbing, a pitch is a steep section of a route that requires a rope between two belays, as part of a climbing system. Standard climbing ropes are between 50 and 80 metres long, so a pitch is always shorter, between two convenient ledges if possible; longer routes are multi-pitch, requiring the re-use of the rope each time. In free climbing, pitch refers to classification by climbers of the difficulty of ascent on certain climbing routes.

In advanced climbing or mountaineering, another definition of pitch is not restricted by the length of the rope. On easier terrain or when moving quickly, the length of a pitch can be extended by means of simul climbing, effectively combining several pitches together by means of a running belay. Speed climbers will often state that they completed a long route with a reduced number of pitches, effectively calling a pitch any time a fixed belay was used or a changeover in the lead occurred. This definition is used loosely, since the length of a pitch is only limited by the nature of the terrain and the confidence of the individual climbing party.

Clients (album)

Clients is the second studio album by American heavy metal band The Red Chord. It was released on May 17, 2005 via Metal Blade Records.

Concept

The title of the album was originally derived from an in-joke and story between Guy Kozowyk's family and friends, referring to the mentally disabled students for whom a member of Kozowyk's family drove a bus. This term eventually spread out to mean anybody for whom one provided service. The title reflects the songs, as the songs are stories from and about "clients", or mentally disabled people, with whom Kozowyk has had experience working in a convenience store located next to a psychiatric rehabilitation/hospital.

Each song is a different "client", or a different person with a mental ailment, ranging from schizophrenia, to multiple personality disorder, to extreme obsessive compulsive disorder. The song "Black Santa" would best describe the album and its meanings, as it actually depicts everything that is used as an inspiration in the album: Kozowyk's job, the people he encountered, the stories he heard, and the notion that everybody both has and is a "client", meaning everybody works for somebody, and that everybody is not entirely mentally stable.