{"id":215846,"date":"2025-06-13T06:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T11:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/with-potential-implications-for-mechanical-systems-study-reveals-physics-of-the-nick-shot-in-squash"},"modified":"2025-06-13T06:19:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T11:19:02","slug":"with-potential-implications-for-mechanical-systems-study-reveals-physics-of-the-nick-shot-in-squash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/with-potential-implications-for-mechanical-systems-study-reveals-physics-of-the-nick-shot-in-squash","title":{"rendered":"With potential implications for mechanical systems, study reveals physics of the \u2018nick shot\u2019 in squash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/with-potential-implications-for-mechanical-systems-study-reveals-physics-of-the-nick-shot-in-squash2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In squash, the \u201cnick shot\u201d is an emphatic, point-ending play in which a player strikes a ball that ricochets near the bottom of the wall and rolls flat along the floor instead of bouncing, leaving an opponent with no chance to return it.<\/p>\n<p>While the shot is as old as the game itself, a team of researchers has now revealed the physics behind it, showing how perfect placement and just the right roll conspire to kill the ball\u2019s bounce.<\/p>\n<p>The research, led by Brown University Professor of Engineering Roberto Zenit, was <a href=\"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2505715122\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i>. While the findings could be useful in developing shock-dampening technologies, Zenit says the work grew out of his interest in using science to explain the everyday world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In squash, the \u201cnick shot\u201d is an emphatic, point-ending play in which a player strikes a ball that ricochets near the bottom of the wall and rolls flat along the floor instead of bouncing, leaving an opponent with no chance to return it. While the shot is as old as the game itself, a team [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}