How can you measure the swingweight of a tennis racquet without expensive tools?

[ambrose]

Hello.
I'am a scientific student in Paris / France.
I am doing a small research about the importance of the swingweight (= Moment Of Inertia) of tennis rackets with 3 goals :
. to define a calculation model to simulate the swingweight and to calculate the impact of adding small weights (lead) on the racket
. to check this model with existing swingweight measurement tools (that I can't afford)
. to build a small experience to approximate the measure
Would you know somebody who could help to achieve these goals ? (somebody who could have some experience)
I have tried to do some search in my country but this is not so easy
Thank you

 

[olivermsun]

Hello.
I'am a scientific student in Paris / France.
I am doing a small research about the importance of the swingweight (= Moment Of Inertia) of tennis rackets with 3 goals :
. to define a calculation model to simulate the swingweight and to calculate the impact of adding small weights (lead) on the racket
. to check this model with existing swingweight measurement tools (that I can't afford)
. to build a small experience to approximate the measure
Would you know somebody who could help to achieve these goals ? (somebody who could have some experience)
I have tried to do some search in my country but this is not so easy
Thank you

There is some existing research on racquet swingweight and the effect on the racquet. I recommend searching for a set of articles by "Rod Cross," a physics professor who is/was also a tennis amateur. Here is a link to some of his articles: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/publications.html

There is also a iPhone app that measures swing weight through a simple standard procedure using the built-in camera. It works based off the pendulum equation, but the use of the camera makes real-world measurement must more convenient. It only costs $0.99.