PD+01+09

pd 01 09 Problem 9- Tennis Serve Problem: Assuming the ball won't be changing direction from spin, determine the lowest angle that a tennis ball can hit the far back corner of the serving box of a tennis court in a singles match on a serve. Based on what you consider to be reasonable limitations, determine the highest angle that a tennis ball can hit the far back corner of the serving box of a singles match on a serve. Web Designer: Thea McCullough Connections Facilitator: Marissa Witmer Forum Moderator: Alexis Kanuha

Above shows two triangles that could be made from the two spaces the server would stand, these are the orange and pink triangles. The blue triangle represents the triangle we used to find the lowest angle that a tennis ball could hit the far back corner of the serving box. Measurements are also pictured. To find the distance or the path of the ball we used the Pythagorean Theorem. We did this for both orange and pink triangles. Below is how we found the maximum angle the tennis ball can hit the far back corner of the serving box. The orange triangle shows the maximum angle if the server, who hits the ball 10.5 feet in the air, stands at the corner of the baseline. The pink triangle shows the maximum angle if the same server stands in the center of the baseline. Below is how we found the minimum angle the tennis ball can hit the far back corner of the serving box. This is the minimum angle no matter where the server stands because it has the height of the net and the length of the service box as the legs of the triangle.