Paddleball Tour

Paddleball Dynamics

This is a tour through the Poincaré sections of a ball bouncing between a fixed upper and oscillating lower paddle. The phase portrait shows velocity on the horizontal axis and position on the vertical axis, and Poincaré sections are taken at 12 equally spaced time intervals during one drive cycle. As we move through one drive cycle, we see the stretching and folding of the attractor as the ball is periodically given energy (stretch) and forced to change direction (fold).