Mathematical Internal assessment Higher level

Candidate name : Ng kai ee chloe

Modeling Tennis Shots

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Introduction:

Rational:

Tennis has always been a passion of mine since I was a child. This passion was instilled into me ever since I was a young girl, as my family would always bring my siblings and I to play tennis during the weekends. Due to this, I slowly developed an appreciation for the sport and it became rooted into my life. Whenever there was a major tennis event such as the tennis open. I would eagerly watch it live on television while watching these matches I would wonder how my idol ,Roger Federer was able to replicate his shot time and time again even while facing different situations and external factors such as weather. Hence, I have decided to base my math exploration, which explores and investigates the different ways of measurement for the equation of different tennis shots, how this affects the velocity and shape of curve of the ball .Currently , I am still playing tennis as a sport and would like to teach my siblings how to hit basic shots hence I have chosen the standard shots that are used in a game .Through the knowledge gained from this exploration I hope that this will give a different perspective in how to approach the shots and will help them understand how exactly they are meant to look like and how the strength of how hard they hit the ball will affect the ball movement .I hope that through the understanding of the visualizations of these curves will also be able to relate to them more since if they dont understand how their shot must curve while playing a more obvious visual approach may be better and help resonate with them more. Through this exploration I am solely aiming to model the trajectory and flight of the tennis ball and the speed and movement of the ball. My aim is to model the exact equation .This will make the values on the axis crucial and significant .This is needed because all I want them to understand and visualize is the shape of the shots as that is what an ideal and good shot looks like.

Modeling Tennis Shots

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Method

The exploration was initiated by watching many tennis matches and finding out what are the most commonly used shots in the game and graphing out the trajectory shape for each shots. The shots were categorized into 4 different categories: flat tennis shot, top spin shot, under spin shot and smash shot.

Example 1- Flat Tennis Shot.

In flat tennis shot, the ball follows an ordinary trajectory with minimal air resistance effect and spin effect of the ball. The trajectory could be modeled using simple velocity vectors. Example 2- Top Spin Tennis Shot.

The topspin shot is hit by sliding the racquet up and over the ball while hitting the ball. The friction between the racquets strings and the ball is used to make the ball spin forward, towards the opponent. The shot dips down quickly and bounces faster at an angle lower to the ground than a shot with no topspin.

Modeling Tennis Shots

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Example 3- Under Spin Tennis Shot:

The under spin shot is hit in the opposite manner, by sliding the racquet underneath the ball as it is struck. This causes the ball to spin towards the hitter of the ball. The ball drops on the ground further from the receiver and bounces off the ground with a greater angle. Both the topspin and backspin are used as a mean to surprise the opponents. Example 4 Smash shot

Smash shot is directed towards the ground with a lot of energy. The objective is to send the ball at great speed towards the opponent. Smash shots are extremely difficult to play and needs an excellent reflex.

The way this investigation was carried out was by choosing the certain shots and their associating graphs and plotting them against graphing paper. For flat tennis shot and smash shot, the mathematical models were determined analytically using concepts of velocity and vectors. For the top spin and under spin, the curves were fit into a mathematical equation using MATLAB programming and regression analysis. Mathematical model for flat tennis shot: | | | | | |, where V=resultant velocity, s=displacement, x= horizontal

displacement, y=vertical displacement. Velocity | | (( ) ( ) )

Modeling Tennis Shots

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