In contrast to a flourishing development of racket rubber coverings, or rubbers, no technical data can be found on their performance under different environmental conditions. In light of this, here we report an experimental study on the frictional response of four different popular rubbers, with pimples-in and pimples-out gometry, tested against three different balls at five levels of relative humidity. It is found that the humidity does affect the frictional characteristics of the rubbers, with all parameters being responsive to changes in the environmental conditions and reaching maximum at the humidity of about 45–60% in a majority of the cases. Probably the most interesting finding is that the ball surface finish has significant effect on the frictional response of all rubbers. This can provide players with the ability to affect the rubber performance at different levels of humidity by simply choosing between different balls.

Graphic Abstract

中文翻译：

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乒乓球：湿度对球拍橡胶摩擦学的影响

与球拍橡胶覆盖物或橡胶的蓬勃发展相反，找不到在不同环境条件下其性能的技术数据。有鉴于此，我们在此报告了四种不同流行橡胶的摩擦响应的实验研究，并采用p压入和p压走法，在五个相对湿度水平下针对三种不同的球进行了测试。发现湿度确实会影响橡胶的摩擦特性，所有参数都对环境条件的变化有响应，并且在大多数情况下，在湿度约为45-60％时达到最大值。可能最有趣的发现是，球的表面光洁度对所有橡胶的摩擦响应都有重要影响。

图形摘要