I swear that in a manual on tennis published by the German Tennis Association (Deutscher Tennis Bund) it stated as fact that all things being equal a ball will move more from left to right than from right to left if spin is applied. Could this be true? I no longer have this manual published 14 years ago but it always struck me as puzzling.
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$\begingroup$ This does not make sense from a physics perspective $\endgroup$– ConfluenceCommented Mar 10, 2017 at 7:11
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2 Answers
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I think it refers to the ability of a right handed player/ left handed player to move more in one direction than in other. Nothing to do with physics. Even if it is meant to be scientific its totally wrong .Germans aren't always correct.
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$\begingroup$ Neither are apostrophe's, apparen'tly :-) $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 11:38
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I'm not sure what he meant by that but he could be referring to an aerodynamic effect. The rotation influences how air flows around it, creating forces, just like lift in a plane. See, for example, Magnus effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect Of course, the direction of the curve isn't necessarily 'left' but it depends on the rotation.
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$\begingroup$ Well, maybe for right handed people the spin imparted would have a left bias and for left handed a right bias? or vice verso $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Oct 28, 2014 at 6:53
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$\begingroup$ To clarify, the manual was saying that a left-handed server hitting with sidespin will get more spin than a right-hander serving with sidespin, even if everything about the swing is the same. in this article physics.stackexchange.com/questions/60681/… Santa Claus' answer includes this sentence: "when a ball spins in a fluid it feels a force. A soccer ball's spin is most noticeable when it's spinning left-right" $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 7:07
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