Tennis is a sport where either two or four players hit a ball over a net using racquets. During play, tennis balls can reach speeds up to 263 km/h, but how do they do this (Nichols, 2016)? There are multiple factors to the speed of a tennis ball during play, including the strength of the hit, the racquet, the type and tension of the racquet strings and the location of the ball’s collision with the racquet (Allen, 2010). One of the most important factors, the location of the ball’s collision with the racquet will be focussed on in this experiment. Over the area of a tennis racquet, there are multiple points of interest, all with different characteristics. Most of these points are known as ‘sweet spots,’ as when they are hit, the tennis
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When a tennis ball is hit, vibrations are created in both the racquet and ball (Dyer, 2001). The ideal situation, and what happens if a sweet spot is hit, is these vibrations move back into the tennis ball, giving the ball a higher kinetic energy, and thus a higher velocity, as kinetic energy is proportional to velocity. This also makes the hit feel better, as less of the vibrations travel into your arm. There are four main points of interest on the racquet that are described in detail. The dead spot, although not a sweet spot, is where, upon collision with a tennis ball, the effective mass of the racquet is equal to the mass of the tennis ball (Cross, Lindsey & Brody, n.d.). This comes from Newton’s second law, F = ma, which can be rearranged to m = F/a. When this happens, the ball loses all its momentum. Think of a collision between two balls of the same mass, one at rest. The ball at rest gains all the energy from the incident ball, leaving the incident …show more content…
As these two forces are equal and opposite, the resultant force is equal to zero, and by Newton’s first law, the handle remains at constant motion resulting in no feeling of ‘shock’ in the hand. The next point of interest is the vibration node. Using terms from wave theory, the node is the point in which the wave’s amplitude is equal to zero. So, as the name suggests, the vibration node, when hit, results in zero vibrations throughout the racquet, which means the vibrations, and thus energy, is transferred to the tennis ball. The final point of interest on the racquet is the ‘best bounce zone,’ or the power point. Here, the ball’s bounce should be the greatest, as the coefficient of constitution should be the highest. And for a stationary racquet, this point is found near the centre of mass (Miller, 2006). The coefficient of restitution is a ratio of the initial velocity to the final velocity, therefore its value is between 0 and 1, the higher the number, the more bouncy the ball is (Ashish, 2017). Traditionally, the performance of tennis racquets was measured by launching tennis balls at the face of the racquet from a ball cannon, and observing
When a tennis ball is hit, vibrations are created in both the racquet and ball (Dyer, 2001). The ideal situation, and what happens if a sweet spot is hit, is these vibrations move back into the tennis ball, giving the ball a higher kinetic energy, and thus a higher velocity, as kinetic energy is proportional to velocity. This also makes the hit feel better, as less of the vibrations travel into your arm. There are four main points of interest on the racquet that are described in detail. The dead spot, although not a sweet spot, is where, upon collision with a tennis ball, the effective mass of the racquet is equal to the mass of the tennis ball (Cross, Lindsey & Brody, n.d.). This comes from Newton’s second law, F = ma, which can be rearranged to m = F/a. When this happens, the ball loses all its momentum. Think of a collision between two balls of the same mass, one at rest. The ball at rest gains all the energy from the incident ball, leaving the incident …show more content…
As these two forces are equal and opposite, the resultant force is equal to zero, and by Newton’s first law, the handle remains at constant motion resulting in no feeling of ‘shock’ in the hand. The next point of interest is the vibration node. Using terms from wave theory, the node is the point in which the wave’s amplitude is equal to zero. So, as the name suggests, the vibration node, when hit, results in zero vibrations throughout the racquet, which means the vibrations, and thus energy, is transferred to the tennis ball. The final point of interest on the racquet is the ‘best bounce zone,’ or the power point. Here, the ball’s bounce should be the greatest, as the coefficient of constitution should be the highest. And for a stationary racquet, this point is found near the centre of mass (Miller, 2006). The coefficient of restitution is a ratio of the initial velocity to the final velocity, therefore its value is between 0 and 1, the higher the number, the more bouncy the ball is (Ashish, 2017). Traditionally, the performance of tennis racquets was measured by launching tennis balls at the face of the racquet from a ball cannon, and observing