Racquetball

Joel Carpenter Physics 103x Fall 2011
David Newman


http://coursees.ncssm.edu/hsi/pages/rballs/index.html


      Racquetball is a very dynamic sport full of trigonometry, physics, and a need for athletic ability.  However, these things are not generally thought of when playing the sport.  Racquetball is a very high intensity sport that exemplifies the fact that physics is part of our intuition, that the laws that apply to us all are simply things that we take for granted, and have known since we were in kindergarten. 
 
      In the midst of a round of racquetball, you, but mostly your brain, must calculate where the ball will land so you can adjust where you will be before it gets there.  You must intuitively know where on the wall the ball will hit before you hit it, all the meanwhile your opponent is doing the same thing, but trying to counter you and your own calculations.  While this all is complicated enough, what adds to the equation is the fact that the ball you are hitting, is extremely elastic.

      What you must keep in mind is that there is always conservations of momentum.  So all the force you put into hitting the ball is transferred into the ball which is transferred into whatever it is hitting.  However, if it is being transferred into the wall, you will not see a noticeable difference in the momentum due to the fact that the ball's mass is not sufficient to overcome the mass of the wall.  In turn, this sends the ball flying back at you and the calculations begin all over again.
 
      Given the fact that these forces are working on the ball, and force that you are putting into the ball while hitting it is actually very great, the ball while it is motion has an incredible amount of kinetic energy, and has a very great potential of injuring you or your opponent if the proper protection is not worn.  Given that this is an elastic equation, and momentum must be conserved, if the ball happens to hit you in say......the eye, all that momentum gets transferred directly there.  There are rumors the float around saying that the ball can form to the socket of your eye and and create enough suction to pull out your eye, although I have found nothing to actually substantiate this rumor.  I do know for a fact though that the force of the ball is great enough that you may very well lose your vision if hit directly.