Physics and Technology of Tennis!

[Jon108]

Hello,

I need some help with a physics project if you would be so kind to offer some suggestions. This is what I have to do:

Identify shortcomings related to your sport and its identified improvements. Propose and explain your own, alternate improvements including their pros and cons.

[Lisa]

I'm not entirely sure what they are asking for...
but a couple of things I can think of...
Tennis balls - the sport is getting faster as the balls are lighter (I think) and they were talking about making the balls slightly larger to slow it all down a bit.

On grass courts, the old chalk was replaced with titanium pigment - presumably to stop the line from "fading" during a match.

There are many other things that have been brought in to help the efficieny of the game - like the net sensor. but not sure if this is what your project is requesting.

Good luck!

[Bruce]

Good explanation, Lisa.

[tennis4you]

To elaborate:

The balls were intended to slow the game down mainly because the serve was becoming so dominate in the game today. Some of that has to do with the evolution of racquets, but I have seen pros hit with wooden racquets for fun and still get serves into the 130s. The intent is to help the returner actually get into the point.

Someone on the internet has been proposing something for years now. They would like to divide the court into 3 parts long-wise instead of 2. This would give the sever less are to hit the serve into (it would reduce the width of the service box) and give the returner a bigger chance to get back more balls. Although when a serve 150mph is hit right at you it is pretty scarey, at the body serves are very effective.

They have also talked about shortening the service line by 12" or so, which would make it tougher to get flat serves in the box. I am a shorter play, and I think that would hurt the shorter players a lot more than the taller players, so I dislike that idea. Heck, I dislike all of the ideas to be honest.



Movement is usually not a problem on hardcourts, but on grass and clay movement is a specialty. Clay is a pain because you slide a lot and you cannot move as quickly as you would like from the get go. Grass is an entirely different beast altogether, I am not sure how Federer looks like he glides across it, but it is ahuge advantage for him at Wilmbledon...

I think the sensor is a good one to throw out there due to movement of the ball. The ball moves so fast it is nice to have another eye on the ball. I would like to see them use instant replay fo rthe players advanatge these days. The audience gets to see the replay and see if the player gets screwed, but the player will not truly know until after the match and that is crap.

You would need to be much more specific if you need better answers, sorry yo!