Like many folks around the world, much of my time since last Friday has been spent watching the Paris Olympic Games.
From the outstanding opening ceremony to swimming heats to mind-boggling gymnastic team competitions, I’ve been amazed and astounded with athletes’ skills.
As I read news about the Olympic Games, I discovered a post by Nicole Sharp at FYFD on the bouncing and spinning of balls in sports at the Olympics.
Sharp’s post focused on fluid dynamics and tennis balls, which caught my attention:
Whether a ball bounces while spinning also matters.
For compliant balls on a non-compliant surface — think tennis balls on a court — a bounce can actually change how much a ball spins.
During impact, a tennis ball can: slide, decreasing its tangential velocity while increasing its topspin; roll, where the ball’s tangential velocity matches the tangential velocity of the surface; or over-spin, where the ball spins faster than it rolls.
For a given impact angle and velocity, researchers found that stiffer and/or lighter balls were more likely to over-spin.
Fascinating!
I found myself reading several of their posts on Olympics sports: diving, ski jumping, swimming, curling, and more.
Check out their series of posts on Olympic sports.
