Re: Student question??

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> Cliff Parker wrote:
> > A student posed a question to me yesterday that I am not
> > sure I have a complete handle on.  Perhaps some of you can
> > help.  He is a tennis player and was wondering why a ball
> > hit with top spin bounces higher than a ball sliced over the
> > net with backspin.  The ideas that came to my mind had to do
> > with Bernoulli causing the path of the ball to change and
> > therefore causing the vertical component of the balls
> > velocity and therefor the vertical component of the kinetic
> > energy to increase.  I am not convinced that there is not
> > something significant I am not thinking of.  Any guidance
> > would be appreciated.
> >
> > Cliff Parker
> > Highland High School

My kinesthetic feel tells me that it is likely that a ball sliced
over the net with backspin is likely hit with less speed than a
ball hit (hard) with topspin. I think this is an excellent example
of a question that can be investigated with equipment which is now
commonly accessible to students (e.g. video camcorder, radar gun).
Sounds like a worthy science fair project.

Leigh