The aerodynamics of tennis balls—The topspin lob

American Journal of Physics - Tập 56 Số 2 - Trang 138-142 - 1988
Antonín Štěpánek1
1ČVUT Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Physics, Suchbatarova 4, 166 07 Prague, Czechoslovakia

Tóm tắt

A general description is presented of the calculation of the ballistic trajectory of a flying spinning ball acted on, in addition to the forces of gravity and drag, by the so-called Magnus force. By applying the regression analysis to results of wind-tunnel measurement of the drag and lift coefficients of a spinning ball, a calculation of the nonlinear differential equation of the hodograph was carried out by means of the Runge–Kutta method. The theoretical results that can be used to calculate the ballistic trajectories for any ball game were applied to one of the most difficult and most interesting tennis strokes, i.e., to the topspin lob. Practical results obtained for various distances are presented in a table as well as in graphical form. UFAJP

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