On Aug 28, 2007, at 6:22 PM, Robert Clair wrote: > A stretchier stringing (weaker spring > constant) will take longer to slow the ball down and accelerate it > back in the other direction but it won't affect the return speed. > (Again, assuming it is mostly elastic which means it eventually > returns the energy to the ball.) > > Try imagining a racket strung with ordinary rubber bands - it might > give you a mental picture of what is going on.
OK, I'm imagining... Player A hits ball over the net. Player B comes in for an overhead smash and swings hard. Ball contacts Player B's springy-squishy- rubbery-strung racket, distending the springy stuff on the racket as the racket moves. Racket shoots ball out a tenth of a second after a nylon-strung racket would have disgorged it, by which time, unfortunately, the racket is pointing straight down. Ball shoots down at the same speed it would have shot forward had the racket been strung in nylon, hits Player B in the foot, bounces up, hits Player B in the nose, stunning him, and then flies weakly over the net, dribbling away out of Player A's reach. Player B wins the point but gives up tennis because it's too dangerous, and fills the gap it leaves in his life by taking up theorbo (which he strings with rubber bands, finding that they sound remarkably like gut). After getting his nose fixed, he goes around giving public speeches about how science has no place in the real world, whereupon George W. Bush appoints him head of the Environmental Protection Agency. I'm starting to get the feeling that we've drifted off topic... -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
