Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

okay so i am doing a project experimenting how the bounciness of a ball is affected by the type of tennis court. I want to use 2 courts, hard ones and grass ones. Unfortunately, grass ones are limited because they are so high maintenance and cost a lot of money. Does anyone know any grass courts near my area which is around the Washington D.C. area. Please let me know if you know any i would really appreciate it!

samachtarm - I play frequently (multiple times per week) on a hard surface court. I agree that it will be difficult to find a true grass court, and if you could, it will clearly be in a high end private club or tournament facility. I just returned from a vacation in Europe where I played several times on 'all weather' clay courts and I can absolutely say the experience is significantly different than a hard surface. The ball is slower after impact, responds to spin imparted on the ball very differently and rebounds vertically much higher. One's timing is very different on this surface. I think you will have difficulty determining what variable to test. If you do a simple drop test, I think the ball will bounce higher on the hard surface. However the rebound, spin and other characteristics will be more dramatic on the clay or grass surface. There is probably a lot of published info on the internet, including tests that were done by equipment manufacturers. Perhaps their work will help you understand what your experiment thesis should be. Good luck.

Rick Marz

There is an article here: http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/24/tennis ... grass.html on grass courts in the US that lists a few that are available for public use. The closest one to DC is probably the one in Long Island, NY, which, of course, is not very close. There aren't many left in the country, unfortunately.

However, it occurs to me that if there is an expensive private club with a grass court that you know of that is closer, it's possible that they might let you in briefly to make a few measurements for a science project without charge if you approached them the right way. I would suggest having a teacher ask for the permission along with you.