Ping Pong Physics
Entry posted by ZZ
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This past Halloweekend, I enjoyed playing a game of ping pong (or table tennis for you nomenclature inclined folks) with one of my fellow compadres, despite the result not ending in my favor. While some might dispute my strategies, claiming them as "unorthodox," I consider them successful for the most part and would definitely employ them to any worthy challenger. However, I will just do a basic overview on the physics that came to mind the other day when I was playing.
First and foremost, Newton's First Law: an object in motion stays in motion, has obvious pertinence to the game itself. Once the ball ball is put in play, it will continue to move with a certain velocity, until acted upon by an unbalanced force (i.e. the opponent, air resistance/friction, or the table). Newton's second law gives us the relationship between net force, mass, and acceleration of an object. Since F = ma, we know that when a player exerts a larger force onto the ping pong ball, the ball will have a larger acceleration in its path of travel, and this leads to it being such a fast paced game. The last of Newton's Laws explaining motion - "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" - would seem to apply as well, even though it is not very apparent through observation. Since the player hits the ball with the paddle giving it a force, the ping pong ball exerts the same force back. However, because the player and the paddle have much more mass, they don't experience the same acceleration as the ball. Lastly, Inertia plays its role as well by determining the maneuverability of the ball. Since inertia is a measure of mass, and the ball has a low mass, this allows each player to change the direction of the ball much easier than in most other sports, like tennis.
Clearly, although it's nice to know all this physics stuff, it doesn't exactly help you win in ping pong...
If you want to see a cool rally check this out
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