Why do tennis rackets have strings, rather than being solid like a table tennis racket?
In: Engineering
Because the tension in the strings causes a trampoline effect with the ball, generating a lot of energy. The strings also “grip” the ball better, enabling the player to spin the ball.
Because tennis rackets have a lot more area than a table tennis paddle. Swatting a solid tennis racket around for 10 minutes would be much harder if it was solid.
Those three other answers are all right!
The summary answer is “it’s what you need to play tennis with a tennis ball on a tennis court” without repeating the others.
Ergonomics of use, efficiency of swing and of strike.
Table tennis is a much shorter court, a much lighter and more rigid ball, and a much smaller paddle.
Reduced weight and more importantly air resistance when swinging. But also, more energy return from high tension on the strings.
Table tennis balls are usually light and rigid. The game is more about direction and speed and you don’t need highly elastic material to change the momentum of the ball owing to the conditions of the ball and the court. But on the other hand in tennis you need direction,speed and you should also be able to change the momentum of the ball(to the opposite direction). As the ball is heavy and has high speed your simple table tennis racquet won’t be able to change the momentum easily. So you need to have a highly elastic material (strings) to be able to absorb the incoming momentum and also be able to impart momentum in the other direction. You can try to hit a tennis ball with your TT racquet. You won’t be able to hit the ball to the other court unless you hit it really hard. This is why cricket bats have a bulge at the lower end of the bat( the sweet spot) as it makes the bat more elastic and helps the batsman to hit balls over the boundary.
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