Talk:Tennis ball

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does anyone know who invented the felt/fuzz on the tennis ball or have any information about tennis ball felt?


I am curious about the date that tennis balls went from being white to being fluourescent yellow. I understand that this change was to enhance visibility, and that there have been experiments (none that have succeeded commercially, I believe) with other colors or combinations of colors. As a child I watched the U.S. Open at the Westside Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y. The balls were white (that would be in the 50's), and it was a prize to get a ball inadvertently hit into the stands with it's distinctive green stain from the grass surface. For years the U.S. Open has been played at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. where the hard surface gives the players more reliable bounces and the balls, of course, are fluourescent yellow.

Just so everyone knows, that's totally my tennis ball - Nick

Contents

[edit] Ball Color

Historically, balls were either black or white in colour, depending on the background colour of the courts. In 1972 the ITF introduced yellow tennis balls into the rules of tennis, as research had shown these balls to be more visible to television viewers. Meanwhile Wimbledon continued to use the traditional white ball, but eventually adopted yellow balls in 1986. ref= http://www.itftennis.com/technical/equipment/balls/history.asp HUH HI hi HI hi HI hi HI hi

Just an interesting note: I have polled about 300 people about the color of the classic tennis ball, even showing many of them a picture, and it's split 50-50 as to whether it's green or yellow. Clearly its green. --JohnLattier 00:45, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Regardless of what historically is the classic color of a tennis ball, the article says, "Modern tennis balls are generally made in a fluorescent yellow color like the ball pictured above (called "optic yellow")." The ball pictured above is green. Surely they don't call that color "optic yellow", do they? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Albedoa (talk • contribs) 15:13, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Numbers on balls

Anybody know what those numbers on the balls mean?

I always thought it was simply to tell them apart from tennis balls used by those on adjacent courts.. -EdGl 21:43, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

The number on the tennis ball is used to tell them apart, so is the brand name, this is a go=;56kbne

It's the number of times you need to bounce it before you serve. --OhNoPeedyPeebles 19:34, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


It's to do with the properties of the ball- I think higher numbers are bouncier, but I can't remember exactly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.21.224.201 (talk) 18:08, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Low level players should use lower numbered balls (ie. 1 or 2), number 3 and above are more for intermediate-pro players. higher numbered balls up to 10 can be obtained from high-level grounds (sometimes available in shops and mob drops). 05 January 2008 - AsteroidS™ This webite is the best websit in the inter net allmost the best well its 6:30 and i have homework night!

[edit] Manufacturing

Could we perhaps add a segment on how they are produced? 155.92.33.244 22:40, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there any particular reason why we are told the ball is of the same size and shape as a baseball? I don't know how big a baseball is and have never come across one in my life.

I resent these stupid American-slanted articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.137.76.220 (talk) 12:12, 13 November 2007 (UTC) me neather —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.17.180.42 (talk) 00:27, 11 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Environmental issues related to tennis balls

Text was added as noted below:

by Soundgreen (Talk | contribs) at 18:23, 26 April 2008

"Each year approximately 300 million balls are produced, which contributes roughly 32.3 million pounds of waste. Historically, tennis ball recycling has not existed and the most common use has been to cut the ball into two semi-spheres and attach this to the bottom of chairs in schools, nursing homes and the like."

(Is that truly the most common use? Has this been verified? I'd have thought the most common reuse of tennis balls was as dog toys, and I've seen far more split tennis balls as trailer hitch covers than as chair feet Jbrecken (talk) 21:05, 2 June 2008 (UTC)Jbrecken)

I'm very interested in knowing more about waste issues related to: 1) Their being shipped in bulk in separate plastic vacuum sealed cans, 2) Their not being able to be reinflated, which results in their being thrown out when they no longer bounce well, 3) Any manufacturers that market decent tennis balls that are not preinflated and are, rather, inflated (and later reinflated) by the consumer, 4) Anything else.

So, if Soundgren, or others, can tell me where the currently cited info came from and/or where I might look to learn more.

Thanks! --Bkengland (talk) 16:56, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

The guy was linkspamming his recycling company on the article so it probably comes from his firm. Montco (talk) 02:49, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
Oh well! Still, I'd sure be interested in finding some solid information and stats on this, and then maybe that could be used, in part, in this article.--Bkengland (talk) 17:27, 2 May 2008 (UTC)