ROD CROSS HOME PAGE
Melbourne Park, Australian Open
Supreme Court, Darlinghurst, Sydney
AT COURTS 
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Melbourne Park, Australian Open |
|
Supreme Court, Darlinghurst, Sydney |
Published
by Springer March 2011
Hardcover, 322
pp Contents, Index and
Chapter 2 now available
for free at
http://books.google.com.au/books
or download
from
http://www.springer.com/physics/book/978-1-4419-8112-7
|
Published
by Springer March 2011 Hardcover, 322
pp Contents, Index and Chapter 2 now available
for free at http://books.google.com.au/books or download
from http://www.springer.com/physics/book/978-1-4419-8112-7 |
Technical Tennis by Rod Cross and Crawford Lindsey
What is the
single most important property of a tennis racquet?
How do you create
maximum spin? Where on the racquet
should you hit
the ball? How does a ball bounce? How many
cows does it
take to string a racquet? This book answers these
and other
elusive questions that have plagued hackers and experts alike,
and will turn
hours of mindless practice into a focussed application of
principles
affecting the impact and flight of the ball.
|
What is the
single most important property of a tennis racquet? How do you create
maximum spin? Where on the racquet should you hit
the ball? How does a ball bounce? How many cows does it
take to string a racquet? This book answers these and other
elusive questions that have plagued hackers and experts alike, and will turn
hours of mindless practice into a focussed application of principles affecting the impact and flight of the ball. |
Available from www.racquettech.com, amazon.com etc (only $10 for priceless
information!). Also available in
Spanish and Japanese.
Remember this:
ÒSex is good but tennis lasts longerÓ Freud, 1938. See book ÒSex as a
sublimation for tennisÓ by Saretsky.
http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/spinexperiment.php has
more recent results and 300fps movie files on spin generation by different
tennis strings (April 2010).
See also The Physics and Technology of Tennis by Howard Brody, Rod Cross and Crawford Lindsey
______________________________
SPORTS PHYSICS MOVIE
CLIPS
______________________________
INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
_______________________________________________
PHYSICS OF BOUNCING BALLS AND OTHER OBJECTS
COLLISIONS GENERATION OF BALL SPIN SPINNING TOPS
MORE TENNIS
and GRAND SLAM DATA and TENNIS
STATISTICS
SPAGHETTI
TENNIS STRINGS and SILLY PUTTY
BALL
TRAJECTORIES and DUNE BUGGY TRAJECTORIES
WOBBLE BOARDS & MUSICAL SAWS MARIOTTEÕS CRADLE (aka NewtonÕs cradle)
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Here is a very elegant example of two
double pendulums working in unison, passing our front door at 300 fps. The next clip shows that gravity is not the only force acting. Muscle action is needed to swing
each pendulum segment. Enjoy the videos and marvel at the
physics and biomechanics involved.
How does he do
this ÒOllieÓ? A skateboard rider can jump in the air with the board almost glued
to his feet. The physics can be seen more clearly is this slow motion demonstration with a tennis ball and two pieces of
wood.
It is not well known, but the Physics
Department hosts a family
of kookaburras. Here is Mum
with a juicy worm. And off
to get another
one. Amazing aerodynamic
control!
|
It is not well known, but the Physics Department hosts a family of kookaburras. Here is Mum with a juicy worm. And off to get another one. Amazing aerodynamic control! |
A falling slinky does something totally
unexpected.
The bottom end waits for the top end to
fall before
the bottom end starts to fall. See also
http://youtu.be/eCMmmEEyOO0
|
A falling slinky does something totally unexpected. The bottom end waits for the top end to fall before the bottom end starts to fall. See also http://youtu.be/eCMmmEEyOO0 |
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LISTEN TO A BELL (recorded at the same volume and
ball speed) hit with (a) a golf ball or
(b) a tennis ball
Why are the sounds so different?
ItÕs the same fundamental reason that some bats and racquets have bigger sweet
spots than others. The amount of vibration depends on the ratio of impact
duration to the vibration period. The bell might sound tinny if you use
internal speakers. Try it anyway as a test of the bass response of your
internal speakers. The fundamental frequency is 975 Hz. Internal speakers will
not respond at all to the f < 200Hz racquet sounds included on the tennis
page.
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PUBLICATIONS
(and TENNIS MAGAZINE
ARTICLES)
PLASMA PHYSICS DEPARTMENT 1960-1995 – HISTORICAL PHOTOS
FORENSIC PHYSICS
Book: evidence for murder (UNSW Press, 2009)
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Brief CV
Born
1943. Lived in Berry, NSW until age 14 then moved to Forbes.
B.Sc. Dip. Ed at Sydney University. PhD in plasma physics in 1968. From 1968 to
1996 I worked in the Plasma Physics Department at Sydney University,
specialising in Alfven wave studies in the TORTUS tokamak. I retired in 2003 as
an Honorary member of staff, to continue work on the physics of sport and
forensic physics.
