Research and Implementation of Table Tennis Sport Simulator Based on Physical Theory

Table tennis is a very popular sport around the world. In the process of learning, understanding the physics principles can help quickly improve technical skills and competition abilities. However, for beginners of table tennis, the way to learn is inefficient because of lacking a platform to intuitively learn theoretical knowledge of table tennis skills and techniques. In this paper, we analyze the mechanical principles of table tennis, and constructs physical models for the flight process and collision rebound process of table tennis ball, respectively. We consider the gravity, air resistance, and Magnus force on the ball in the air to establish a flight trajectory model. In addition, we investigate the collisions between the ball, table and bat, and specifies the criteria for sliding friction and rolling friction. Based on a set of experiments, we verify the proposed models by comparing the theoretical simulation results with real cases playing by professional athletes.