Results of My School Project...

[ambro]

As I said earlier, I have been doing a year long school project on the topic of my choice, and I did it on different strings' tension loss. If you want to know more information on it, visit these posts:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=68749
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=72279
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=89705

Anyways, I'm done with it and have the results in a PowerPoint that I uploaded to this site for you all to download:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2pzdsz

I tested each string 4 times and averaged, as you can see in the table. The graphs are of the averages. The test at "0" minutes was as it was being pulled, and the test at "1" minute was directly after clamping off. So the difference between 0 and 1 minute is just the amount of tension lost in clamping off.

Also, since this doesn't really test any loss over playing time, the tension after 2 hours in my research essentially is the string's tension after removing it from the stringing machine before hitting with it. Due to time, this project does not really measure the actual loss of string tension as I had hoped, rather the difference in actual tension between strings as they come off the machine after being strung at the same reference tension.

If you have any questions for me about results or my methods in my research feel free to contact me via email (click my username and "email user") and I'll be happy to answer your questions.

Finally - The best part of this project was that I won my school's "science fair" type of thing with this project! I won $50 with it that I can use to buy more string! I was pumped

 

[c_zimma]

Thats cool that you won. Very nice project. Congrats

 

[ambro]

Thanks a bunch!

Also, there is a lot of the PowerPoint that I took out because it was basically explaining different types of string, how a machine works, stuff like that that doesn't need to be explained on this board. What is in the one in the original post is just the results, which are pretty self explanitory.

My original PowerPoint contained things like why I chose this project, my methods of how I did it, other things like that. If anyone would like to see that I could upload it to SendSpace like the other one.

 

[highsierra]

Interesting, Signum PPP is touted as the poly that holds tension well but your tests indicate it loses the most. Granted, it's the thinnest poly in your test. Well, I guess it depends on what it means by "holding tension well". From 1 minute to 120 minutes, Signum PPP's tension loss only goes from 7.2 to 9.9 but the other two have much more loss. So seems to me after the initial immeidate tension loss, Signum PPP does hold tension better than the other two.

 

[Lakoste]

Congrats on the win and great job on the presentation, You used the recording on the computer method to figure out the tension, correct? How long did you have to do the project?


OFF TOPIC
for all those people that want to see it but dont have PowerPoint, you can get Microsoft's free trial beta of Office 12 (didnt come out yet), the trial expires Feb 2007, heres the direct download link and code, its kind of big, but with cable its like 15 minutes
http://download.esd.licensetech.com/Microsoft/DMMSO12B/PRO/AKAMAIFILES/OPPLUS-EN.EXE
MTP6Q-D868F-448FG-B6MG7-3DBKT

 

[Kevo]

It's an interesting result. I am interested in what the possible reasons for the variation in results are. How was the string pulled and how was the tension loss measured? I wonder if this is a good reason to invest in a good electronic tensioner, or if there is just a fair amount of variation in string as a general rule.

 

[ambro]

Congrats on the win and great job on the presentation, You used the recording on the computer method to figure out the tension, correct? How long did you have to do the project?

We had nearly the whole year to do it. About 8 months I'd say. It took me about a month to collect data as I'd do a few trials after school each day.

It's an interesting result. I am interested in what the possible reasons for the variation in results are. How was the string pulled and how was the tension loss measured? I wonder if this is a good reason to invest in a good electronic tensioner, or if there is just a fair amount of variation in string as a general rule.

String was pulled for 10 seconds on a dropweight (X-6 FC) before being clamped off. Tension was measured with Freqmess v.07. I'm not sure for the variation, but I'd bet it is the string. I made sure all the variables, pull times, clamp locations, etc were always the same. Not sure about it though.

Interesting, Signum PPP is touted as the poly that holds tension well but your tests indicate it loses the most. Granted, it's the thinnest poly in your test. Well, I guess it depends on what it means by "holding tension well". From 1 minute to 120 minutes, Signum PPP's tension loss only goes from 7.2 to 9.9 but the other two have much more loss. So seems to me after the initial immeidate tension loss, Signum PPP does hold tension better than the other two.

Like I said, the actual tension loss was from 1-120 minutes, from 0-1 is the amount of tension lost from clamping off.

 

[10sstringman]

Too bad your test didn't include more time. 120 minutes isn't very long. The Isospeed is supposed to sit overnight so that it can drop a good deal of tension and then lock in. It would also be interesting to see if SPPP (known for holding tension) actually locks in at a certain time frame as well.