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Compare And Contrast The Physics Of Tennis And Racquetball

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All sports are heavily reliant on physics because without some concepts of physics existing they wouldn’t be able to exist either. Tennis and racquetball are prime examples of this because without motion, velocity, and many other physics concepts the sport would be impossible to play. However, the one main difference about these two sports is that they have such different balls even though they are practically the same size. Racquetballs and tennis balls behave very differently for many different physics related reasons. They are made differently with these concepts in mind so that these sports are different and unique in their own way. However, they are nearly the same exact size so how are they so different? The balls will be examined and …show more content…

The main three types of energy that are involved are kinetic, elastic, and gravitational. Kinetic energy is naturally different for racquetballs and tennis balls because tennis balls weigh more. When measuring kinetic energy the mass of the object is used so tennis balls have a natural advantage to have a bigger kinetic energy. Even if the racquetball was traveling a little faster there is a chance that the tennis ball would still have a bigger kinetic energy. With elastic energy, both of these balls have it and so does almost every other ball in sports. However, they may have different amounts of it when they both bounce because of the way they are made. One’s rubber may be stretched or compressed in a way that gives it more elasticity or bounce so that when it hits the racquet or court it bounces higher. Tennis balls have less elastic energy than golf balls so one may think they have less elastic potential energy than racquetballs on average. Also, with the tennis ball weighing more and still having enough elastic energy to bounce as high as the lighter racquetball it is right to say that the tennis ball has more elastic potential energy. Finally, gravitational energy is the last main type of energy that affects tennis. This type of energy also has to do with mass and so the tennis ball is already a leg up in the race. When held at the same height the tennis ball will have more gravitational potential energy. However, if the racquetball was held way higher than the tennis ball it may be able to at some point have a higher GPE. It would just have to be held from a higher point than the tennis ball. The weight difference is only 0.6 ounces but when it comes to GPE this can change the answer quite a bit. These are all the different ways energies affect these two types of

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