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Physics Behind Tennis

jwdiehl88

Entry posted by jwdiehl88

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Tennis, a difficult sport to master, has many forces and transfers of energy acting upon it.  As a two tennis players rally a ball between themselves, it seems unreal as the ball flies to incredible speed between them.  This can be explained through Newton's law as the ball exerts a force to the racket, the racket exerts the same magnitude force but the opposite direction.  Also the ball hitting the racket or the ground experiences a inelastic collision.  This is why, it is hard for tennis players to hit a fast ball coming at them and to keep it in the court.  During the contact of the ball to the racket, it loses energy and to keep the energy constant, the players has to exert energy to match the incoming ball's energy.  Additionally, it seems impossible of the speed the ball flies and the accuracy some people have to keep the ball in court and high enough to above the net.  This is can be explained of the the force of gravity on the ball as the ball flies through the air.  The force of gravity helps the ball stay relatively low near the ground then in the air.  Also for the reason the tennis ball stays relatively low to the ground, the tennis ball has a drag force resisting from the ball going straight in the air. 

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nathanstack15

I never thought about the ball hitting the ground or the racket as an inelastic collision. It's cool to think about the game in terms of transfers of energy instead of forces!

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