A feathered shuttle makes badminton physics unique
Badminton players bat a shuttlecock over a net in singles or doubles. Only one hit per side is allowed before the bird crosses; rally ends when it hits court or an official calls a fault—and feathers make its flight unlike any ball sport.
Badminton is a racquet sport in which players hit a shuttlecock across a net, most often as singles or doubles, though larger teams are allowed. Each side gets one stroke before the shuttle must cross, and a rally ends when it lands or when the umpire, the service judge, or, without officials, the opposing side calls a fault. The shuttle, feathered or plastic in casual games, has far more drag than a ball, so it slows sharply, yet its top speed beats that of balls in other racquet sports.
Shuttlecock games are centuries old across Eurasia, but modern badminton grew up in the mid-nineteenth century among British officers in India as a variant of battledore and shuttlecock, battledore being an old word for racquet. It was also known as Poona, after the garrison town where the first rules were drawn up in 1873, and a version with a woollen ball was played in Thanjavur by the 1850s. By 1875 returning officers had started a club in Folkestone, and the Badminton Association of England formally launched the sport in Portsmouth on 13 September 1893.
Nine nations, among them England, Denmark, Canada, and New Zealand, founded the International Badminton Federation in 1934, now the Badminton World Federation. Denmark came to lead European play while the game boomed in Asia. It entered the Summer Olympics in 1992 with four events, and mixed doubles followed four years later.
The court measures 13.4 metres long and 6.1 metres wide, trimmed to 5.18 metres for singles, and the net stands 1.55 metres at the posts and 1.524 metres in the middle. A serve must be hit with the whole shuttle below 1.15 metres and must clear the short service line. Games run to 21 points, with a point for every rally won rather than only on serve as under the old 15-point system, and a match is the best of three games.
Source: Badminton
