The Effect of Varied Tennis String Tension on the Coefficient of Restitution

Overview

Objectives/Goals This project will find the effect of varied string tension on the coefficient of restitution for tennis ball and racquet collision. The hypothesis is that if the string tension on a tennis racquet is changed, then the coefficient of restitution will be changed in proportion to the increase or decrease in tension. Methods/Materials A special test set up was built to repeatedly drop balls into racquets and capture the height of the rebound. Results Between five different string tensions, the height at which the ball rebounded varied by a small amount. Large measurement variations made data analysis difficult. With further reading, it was found that the coefficient of restitution of a tennis ball is much smaller than the string's coefficient of restitution. Conclusions/Discussion This lead to the conclusion that less string tension increases the collision coefficient of restitution and this was verified by experimental results. the hypothesis is accepted, and the coefficient of restitution is marginally affected by an increase or decrease in string tension.

Awards (1)

• First Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2008 Applied Mechanics & Structures · Entry S0219

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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