------Program code: NS-081203-03151 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
12-03-2008 10:09
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Badminton was first included as an official Olympic event in Barcelona in 1992. This was virtually a century after the Badminton Association of England was founded in 1893. In the Olympic competitions, players from Asia quickly established their dominance. Susi Susanti and her fiancé Alan Budi Kusumaher from Indonesia, where badminton is the national sport, won the first singles titles, at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics. In Jakarta, a two-hour parade was held to welcome the Olympic heroes home. This was the first time Indonesia had won an Olympic gold medal since the country first competed in the Olympics in 1952. Today, China, Indonesia and South Korea are the leading countries in the international badminton arena, followed by Denmark, Britain and Sweden. In fact, badminton is popular all around the world, and is played by a huge number of amateurs.
Badminton is played with a shuttlecock, which is completely unlike any ball. It’s neither round nor capable of bouncing. Light in weight, the shuttlecock is spirited between the two sides of a net. Sometimes reaching heights of over 9 meters, the shuttlecock operates in a three dimensional space of 750 cubic meters above the court.
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Remarkably, the badminton shuttlecock travels at speeds far higher than those of the balls used in other sports. In the Sudirman Cup held in Beijing in May 2005, Fu Haifeng from China was recorded as hitting a shuttlecock at a speed of 332 kilometres per hour, faster than a Formula One racing car. Tennis and baseball appear like “slow motion” versions of badminton. However, just imagine the impossibility of playing a game on a court 13.4 metres long, with a projectile traveling at 90 meters per second. The fact is, the conical shape and light weight of a shuttlecock make it lose speed quickly when it meets air resistance. Hence the difficulty of achieving an ace in badminton, compared to tennis. Moreover, a badminton shuttlecock cannot achieve a full parabola; it never follows a symmetrical arc. The peak of the curve is always nearer to the drop point, and the descending arc is always steeper than the ascending one. In the case of a deep high serve, the parabola is approximately a half. When the horizontal speed of the shuttlecock falls to zero, it will drop, spinning at a constant speed. So the badminton shuttlecock may be the fastest projectile, but it also loses its speed the fastest.
In any space mission, ensuring the safe landing of the craft is one of the biggest challenges. In 2005, a private American company successfully made the first commercial spacecraft airbus, capable of carrying passengers 100 kilometres into outer space. The airbus’s designer claimed that his inspiration for its landing mechanism came from badminton. The craft has folding wings, which it opens during its return. Like a shuttlecock, this allows a steady and effective deceleration and so ensures a safe landing.
Because a badminton shuttlecock is extremely sensitive to aerodynamic forces, it’s often described as “delicate”. The airflow speed on a badminton court may not exceed 0.2 meters per second. In professional tournaments, the temperature and altitude are taken into account. A shuttlecock travels at lower speeds in cold areas and at low altitudes, where the air density is high and the resistance consequently greater. On the other hand, it travels at higher speed in hot areas and at high altitudes. Shuttlecocks are universally classified into five categories; faster ones are used at lower altitudes, and slower ones at higher altitudes. For example, shuttlecocks used in official competitions in Shanghai, weigh 5.2 g, while those used in Kunming weigh 4.7 g.
It’s been known for badminton players, if they are unable to find a suitable shuttlecock, to insert a drawing pin into the base to increase the weight and speed. A more popular method is to fold four or eight out of the sixteen feathers either inward or outward, thus changing the opening angle of the cone and adjusting its speed.
Another unique feature of the shuttlecock, is that when it’s in flight, it always presents its head towards the front. This means the centre of gravity is far away from the centre of air pressure, and since the long axis is always tangential to the track of motion, this produces a stabilizing moment. The “horn mouth” facing the front also induces maximum “profile drag”. Experiments testing the sensitivity and reaction of a high-quality shuttlecock, have shown that after leaving a racquet at 300 km per hour, it can turn around within 0.02 seconds.
The development of modern badminton is closely related to the technological revolution in racquet manufacturing. Originally, badminton racquets were made of wood and were therefore inflexible and fragile. The introduction of aluminium alloy transformed the overall quality of racquets. Subsequently, the adoption of titanium alloy further reduced the weight of racquets and increased their resilience. Later, carbon fiber, which was even lighter and more flexible, monopolized the racquet manufacturing industry. The development of nano-technology has seen nano-scale “fullerene” used to fill the gaps between the carbon atoms, further improving the elasticity, shock resistance and tolerance of badminton racquets. The adoption of a T-shaped joint to link the frame of the racquet to the handle, has increased the resilience and controllability of the racquet. The strings are now made of composite materials, which are more balanced and elastic.
The badminton shuttlecock is the only piece of equipment used in an Olympic competition that is made of feathers. Over the past half century, the shuttlecock has experienced great changes and become much lighter. A shuttlecock is a delicate work of art. In the choice, cleaning, drying and processing of the feathers, several processes are involved. The embedding, gluing and weighing of the feathers are all subject to computer control. All shuttlecocks, after their manufacture, are tested and classified according to their speed.
The feathers used to make shuttlecocks come from geese. The best are the fourth to tenth feathers, counting from the outside in. However, the feathers must be plucked when the goose is still alive, as this ensures that the necessary animal protein structure is still present. Several years ago, during the bird-flu outbreak when poultry was being slaughtered on a massive scale, the price of feathers for shuttlecocks skyrocketed. Such is the popularity of badminton today, that there are not enough birds’ feathers available to satisfy the increasing demand for shuttlecocks.
The answer has been to replace the feathers with nylon and plastic. Many leading sports equipment manufacturers are developing high-quality “nylon shuttlecocks”, some of which are already very close to the standard of “natural” shuttlecocks. But problems still exist. A “skirt” made of nylon, when subjected to air resistance, “closes” slightly, which affects the deceleration. A nylon shuttlecock also rotates a few thousandths of a second slower than a “natural” shuttlecock, and is also not as controllable. However, the emergence of new materials and technologies in the future will greatly improve the situation. Already, “nylon shuttlecocks” have their advantages. They are cheaper to produce and more durable. In a training session for professional players, hundreds of shuttlecocks will be used, leaving numerous feathers scattered all over the court. Some badminton teams find the feather shuttlecocks too expensive. This has been a major constraint on the development of badminton in some African countries. Without doubt, the adoption of good, cheap “nylon shuttlecocks” is the way forward, not least because they save energy and are therefore good for the environment. Nylon shuttlecocks were first used in an international competition in the Asian Under-16 Championships in December 2005.
The shuttle that moves backwards and forwards in weaving, and a male bird’s plume of tail feathers. The adoption of nylon is a sign of an old sport adapting to the modern era.
Editor:Yang
