Tennis
The game of tennis goes back to as early as around the sixteenth century. The object of tennis was to hit the ball over the net and onto the other player's side to get a point. Whenever the popularity level of the game went up, tennis players required more accommodations in their equipment. As the materials became more readily available for tennis designers, more and more technological advancements were made to every aspect of the sport. New sports product innovations are rapidly developed and brought to market by the manufacturers in order to accommodate different kinds of needs and changing personal preferences of the users. Technology has impacted tennis because the past of how it came, how it changed today, and how it affects the ability of the player.
In the sixteenth century technology barely has taken place. Before technology interfered with the sport tennis, to hit the ball over the net, you had to hit the ball with your hand, or the palm of your hand. Within a few years, the sport of tennis switched to a leather glove to hit the ball. Eventually, tennis innovators came up with the racquet to hit the ball with. The racquet was constructed of wood. However, early wood racquets caused numerous amounts of problems such as wood warping. The original strings on the first tennis racquets were made from cow intestines, which were very reliable, but yet expensive (Technology,72). In time, newer tennis racquet strings were made from polyester string that was very reliable and cheaper too. After people realized wooden racquets weren't as good, because of the wood, graphite became a common material used for racquets. Two main key properties for racquet materials was stiffness and the weight. The technology for adding stiffness without adding the weight continues to improve. The typical racquet designed in the 1980's weighed around thirteen ounces, now, racquets weigh around nine ounces.
The first tennis balls were wooden and years later,...