The purpose of this experiment was to discover how the flexibility of a hockey stick impacts the distance and velocity at which the puck will travel. If the puck traveled the farthest distance and maintained the greatest velocity then, the puck was launched by the stick with the most flexibility because it was able to generate more force to launch the puck. However, when testing out just the flexibility of the stick alone, it was puzzling to find that the Bauer Vapor x60 Composite Stick was capable of firing the puck a greater distance and at a greater velocity than the Easton 53 Composite Stick. There had to be another factor that was being missed.
It was determined that the flexibility of a hockey stick is not the only factor that impacts the distance and velocity of the puck. Instead, the mass of the stick also needs to be taken into consideration. For example, the Bauer Vapor x60 Composite Stick had a slightly larger flex number (52) than the Easton 53 Composite Stick (50). However, the Bauer Vapor x60 Composite
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If the stick is pulled further back from the the start line then, the puck will travel a greater distance with a greater velocity than if the stick was pulled back a shorter distance from the start line. For example, the Bauer Vapor x60 Composite Stick cause the puck to travel an average distance of 1.432 meters at an average velocity of when +0.716 meters per second when launched from the -0.15 meter mark. However, when the stick was pulled back to the -0.20 meter mark (an increase of 0.05 meters between the starting point and the stick’s launch point), the Bauer Vapor x60 Composite Stick was able to cause the puck to soar an average distance of 2.171 meters at average velocity of +1.086 meters per second. This is much greater than when the stick was only pulled back to the -0.15 meter