TABLE TENNIS These tips will help you improve your game and give you a competitive edge

at tournaments. Training; Strategy - Tactics...

In Brief conclusion and History:

All is fine to start with, but almost immediately, the volume and forcefulness of the stream dwindles away, only to return again after a modest amount of wind has been passed.These will enable to find any mention of this rather striking phenomenon in sports literature, and would be more than interested to know whether others might have a similar experience in the sports of table tennis though perhaps have been too reticent to mention it to their founder. Our suggestions as to an explanatory physiological mechanism would be much appreciated.An answer to this challenge came with the help of ground-breaking work in playing table tennis from an unexpected quarter: the 24-strong worldwide fluid mechanics team at Sports. These professionals are more used to analysing and testing mechanism; but now they set their sights on finding a solution to the problem of how to go around the tables, while keeping the spectators cool. To achieve the right velocity but with turning the condition they included replacing sections; running the sports condition at full capacity during the day to compensate for increasing levels during match-play in the daytime; and installing additional temporary condition capacity to other areas of the table, which would not directly impact on the field of play.

What is the productive example of disciplinary cross- computational dynamics while playing table tennis?
The purpose of this experiment was to explore the application of co-ordination dynamics to the analysis of discrete rather than cyclical movements. Subjects, standing in a fixed position, were required to return table-tennis balls delivered to different spatial locations in the direction of a fixed target. This was achieved in condition 1 by systematically scaling, from left to right and vice versa, the `spatial location' of the ball dentified as a control parameter. In condition 2, the control condition, the spatial location was varied randomly over the same range. The changes between regimes of the stroke co-ordination pattern, defined at two different levels, (1) organisational forehand or backhand drive, and (2) kinematic the distance of the bat at ball bat contact relative to the leading edge of the table, were identified as collective variables, the values of which changed spontaneously at the transition points exposed by the control parameter. The switch between regimes was shown to be dependent upon the direction of scaling, i.e. a hysteresis effect was identified in both conditions. These findings confirm that the conceptual and methodological frameworks of co-ordination dynamics can be applied, appropriately, to the analysis of discrete movements. Moreover, it would seem that control parameter values (spatial location of the ball) do not necessarily have to be scaled in a systematic way in order to produce the required effects.

This chapter introduces and then compares the multi-layer perceptron neural network to the radial basis function neural network to help understand and predict interstate conflict. These two techniques are described in detail and justified with a review of relevant literature and they are implemented to interstate conflict. The results obtained from the implementation of these techniques demonstrate that the multilayer perceptron neural network is better at predicting interstate conflict than the radial basis function network. This is mainly due to the cross-coupled chartacteristics of the multi-layer perceptrons network compared to the radial basis function network.

Right Hand Rule

The right hand rule is a visualization technique used to determine the correct direction of a vector resulting from vector cross-product multiplication. It is based on the following sign convention for an XYZcoordinate system, as shown below.

For the XYZ reference frame shown above, the positive direction of the three individual axes is defined as shown. This choice of positive direction for these axes is important because vector cross-product multiplication is based on it.

Therefore, it is important to use this same sign convention when using vector cross-product multiplication, and when solving equations derived from vector cross-product multiplication. The Euler equations of motion are an example of equations that must be solved using the sign convention shown above. If you use another sign convention, you might get the wrong answer. For example, the sign convention shown below has a different sign convention than the sign convention shown in the figure above. So it may give you the wrong answer if you use it when solving equations involving vector cross-product multiplication. So dont use it!

To illustrate the right hand rule consider the following vector cross-product:

where A, B, and C are vectors. The direction of vector C is determined using the following procedure: Join the tail of vector A to the tail of vector B. The direction of vector C is then determined by curling the fingers of your right hand in a direction that sweeps from vector A to vector B. The resulting direction of your thumb denotes the direction of vector C.

Note that vector C is perpendicular to vectors A and B.

To show an example of applying the right hand rule, consider the cylinder shown below which has a force Fp acting at point P on the cylinder. The radius of the cylinder is r. We wish to determine the moment of the forceFp about point O. The sign convention shown below has the positive Z-axis pointing out of the page. It matches the sign convention shown in the first figure.

The moment of the force Fp about point O is given by the vector cross product rxFp, where r is the position vector from point O to point P. Now, join the tail of vector r to the tail of vector Fp, as shown below.

Using the right hand rule, the vector rxFp is pointing out of the page in the positive Zdirection.

Alternatively, we can also determine the direction of rxFp by directly evaluating the vector cross-product rxFp. This avoids having to use the right hand rule, since the direction is automatically determined by evaluating the cross-product. For example, lets say the position vector r is given by

where the radius r = 1.5, and J is the unit vector pointing in the positiveY-direction. Let's say the force vector Fp is given by

where I is the unit vector pointing in the positive X-direction. The moment of the force Fp about O is given by

where K is the unit vector pointing in the positive Z-direction. Therefore,rxFp is pointing out of the page, in the positive Z-direction. This is the same result as before.

You can also determine the direction of rxFp by imagining which direction the force Fp tends to rotate the cylinder. Upon curling the fingers of your right hand in this direction, your thumb will also point out of the page (in the positive Z-direction). This is a slight variation on the right-hand rule, but it gives the same result. Which method should be used depends entirely on your personal preference.

In summary, when solving kinematics and dynamics problems there are two basic cases where you will need to use the right-hand rule: Case 1: If you know the direction of spin of the angular velocity, you must use the right-hand rule to assign the correct direction for its corresponding vector, and thus determine the correct values for its three components (wx, wy,wz). Similarly, if you know the direction of spin of the angular acceleration, you must use the right-hand rule to assign the correct direction for its corresponding vector, and thus determine the correct values for its three components (x, y, z). Conversely, if you know the components of the angular velocity vector (wx, wy, wz), or angular acceleration vector (x, y, z), the direction of spin is given by the right-hand rule. Case 2: The right-hand rule also applies to the moment of a force vector. To determine the correct direction for this vector, you can use the right-hand rule. However, as shown in the example above, if you are calculating this vector directly using cross-product multiplication (i.e. Mo = rxFp), then you do not need to apply the right-hand rule to determine its

direction. This is because the resultant vector (calculated from rxFp), is automatically pointing in the correct direction. Dynamics is the study of the motion of objects (i.e. kinematics) and the forces responsible for that motion. It is a branch of classical mechanics, involving primarily Newton's laws of motion. As a field of study it is very important for analyzing systems consisting of single bodies or multiple bodies interacting with each other. A dynamics analysis is what allows one to predict the motion of an object or objects, under the influence of different forces, such as gravity or a spring. It can be used to predict the motion of planets in the solar system or the time it takes for a car to brake to a full stop. Nothing that moves can be analyzed without using dynamics concepts. It is also important for understanding everyday things that are of interest to many of us, such as the physics of sports, and amusement parks. Click on the links below to learn more about the different subject areas of dynamics. Newton's Laws Of Motion Newton's Second Law Inertial Reference Frame Free Body Diagram Forces Moment Of A Force Right Hand Rule Center Of Mass Hooke's Law Rotational Inertia Radius Of Gyration Center Of Percussion Drag Force Centrifugal Force Coriolis Force Euler Force Friction Rolling Without Slipping Rolling Resistance Angular Momentum Linear Momentum Conservation Of Momentum Impulse And Momentum Elastic Collision Inelastic Collision Conservative Force Conservation Of Energy Kinetic Energy Work Equations Of Motion Euler Equations Equilibrium Rigid Body Dynamics

If youre doing any work in 3D, you will need to know about the Cartesian coordinate system and transformation matrices. Cartesian coordinates are typically used to represent the world in 3D programming. Transformation matrices are matrices representing operations on 3D points and objects. The typical operations are translation, rotation, scaling.

2 dimensional Cartesian coordinates

You should have seen something like this in your math class:

[original image] The Roman letters I, II, III, and IV represent the quadrants of the Cartesian plane. For example, III represents the third quadrant. Not a lot to say here, so moving on

3 dimensional Cartesian coordinates

And for 3 dimensions, we have this:

[original image] I dont quite like the way the z-axis points upward. The idea probably stems from having a piece of paper representing the 2D plane formed by the x and y axes. The paper is placed on a flat horizontal table, and the z-axis sticks right up. Mathematically speaking, theres no difference. However, I find it easier to look at it this way:

The XY Cartesian plane is upright, representing the screen. The z-axis simply protrudes out of the screen. The viewport can cover all four quadrants of the XY plane. The illustration only covered the first quadrant so I dont poke your eye out with the z-axis *smile* There is also something called the right-hand rule, and correspondingly the left-hand rule. The right-hand rule has the z-axis pointing out of the screen, as illustrated above. The lefthand rule has the z-axis pointing into the screen. Observe the right-hand rule:

The thumb represents the x-axis, the index finger represents the y-axis and the middle finger represents the z-axis. As for the left-hand rule, we have:

Were looking at the other side of the XY plane, but its the same thing. The z-axis points in the other direction. And yes, I have long fingers. My hand span can cover an entire octave on a piano. Whats the big deal? Because your 3D graphics engine might use a certain rule by default, and you must follow. Otherwise, you could be hunting down errors like why an object doesnt appear on the screen. Because the object was behind the camera when you thought its in front. Your selected graphics engine should also allow you to use the other rule if you so choose. In case youre wondering, heres the right-hand rule illustration with the z-axis pointing upwards:

I still dont like a skyward-pointing z-axis. It irks me for some reason

Scaling (or making something larger or smaller)

So how do you enlarge or shrink something in 3D? You apply the scaling matrix. Lets look at the 2D version:

If your scaling factor is greater than 1, youre enlarging an object. If your scaling factor is less than 1, youre shrinking an object. What do you think happens when your scaling factor is 1? Or when your scaling factor is negative? So how does the scaling factor look like in a scaling matrix?

If you dont know what that means, or dont know what the result should be like, review the lesson on matrices and the corresponding program code. You will notice there are separate scaling factors for x- and y- axes. This means you can scale them independently. For example, we have this:

And we only enlarge along the x-axis:

We can also only enlarge along the y-axis:

Yeah, I got tired of drawing 2D pictures, so I decided to render some 3D ones. Speaking of which, you should now be able to come up with the 3D version of the scaling matrix. Hint: just add a scaling factor for the z-axis.

Rotating (or spinning till you puke)

This is what a rotation matrix for 2 dimensions looks like:

That symbol that looks like an O with a slit in the middle? Thats theta (pronounced th-aytuh), a Greek alphabet. Its commonly used to represent unknown angles. Ill spare you the mathematical derivation of the formula. Just use it. You can convince yourself with a simple experiment. Use the vector (1,0), or unit vector lying on the x-axis. Plug in 90 degrees for theta and you should get (0,1), the unit vector lying on the y-axis. Thats anti-clockwise rotation. To rotate clockwise, just use the value with a change of sign. So youll have -90 degrees. Depending on the underlying math libraries you use, you might need to use radians instead of degrees (which is typical in most math libraries). Im sure youre clever enough to find out the conversion formula for degree-to-radian yourself

Now for the hard part. The 3D version of rotation is a little difficult. You see, what youve read above actually rotates about the implied z-axis. Wait, that means you can rotate about the x-axis! And the y-axis! Sacrebleu! You can rotate about any arbitrary axis! Ill write another article on this. If youre into this, then you might want to take a look at this article on 3D rotation. Ill also touch on a concept where you rotate about one axis and then rotate about another axis. Be prepared for lots of sines and cosines in the formula. Stop weeping; its unseemly of you.

Translating (nothing linguistic here)

What it means is youre moving points and objects from one position to another. Lets look at a 1 dimensional example:

The squiggly unstable looking d-wannabe? Its the Greek alphabet delta. Delta-x is a standard notation for change in x. In this case x refers to distance along the x-axis. Well use an easier-to-type version called dx for our remaining discussion.

In 2 dimensions, we have the corresponding dy, for change in y. Note that theres no stopping you from using negative values for dx or dy. In the illustration above, dx and dy are negative. Youll have to imagine the case for 3D because the diagram is likely to be messy. But its easy to visualise. You just do the same for z-axis. So whats the transformation matrix for translation? First, you need to extend your matrix size and vector size by one dimension. The exact reasons are due to affine transformations and homogeneous coordinates (Ive mentioned them briefly earlier). Consider this: You have a point (x,y,z) and you want it to be at the new position (x + dx, y + dy, z + dz). The matrix will then look like this:

Notice that for scaling, the important entries are the diagonal entries. For rotation, there are sines and cosines and theyre all over the place. But for translation, the main body of the matrix is actually an identity matrix. The fun stuff happens in the alleyway column on the extreme right of the matrix. That reminds me. Because youll be using all the transformation matrices together, all matrices must be of the same size. So scaling and rotation matrices need to be 4 by 4 too. Just extend them with zero entries except the bottom right entry, which is 1.

Conclusion
We talked about 2D and 3D Cartesian coordinates. Ive also shown you the right-hand and left-hand rules. This forms the basis for learning basic transformations such as scaling, rotation and translation. There are two other interesting transformation matrices: shearing and reflection. I thought what we have is good enough for now. You are free to do your own research. When the situation arise, Ill talk about those two transformations. If you enjoyed this article and found it useful, please share it with your friends. You should also subscribe to get the latest articles (its free). You might find this article on converting between raster, Cartesian and polar coordinatesuseful. You might find these books on coordinate transformation useful.