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A sweet spot is a place, often numerical as opposed to physical, where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution.

In the context of a racquet, bat or similar sporting instrument, sweet spot is often believed to be the same as the center of percussion
Center of percussion

The center of percussion is the point on an object where a perpendicular impact will produce translational and rotational forces which perfectly cancel each other out at some given pivot point, so that the pivot will not be moving momentarily after the impulse....
.

term originally referred to various pieces of sport
Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
ing equipment, notably cricket
Cricket

Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games team sport that originated in southern England. The earliest definite reference is dated 1598, and it is now played in more than 100 countries....
 and baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
 bats and tennis
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
 racquets.






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A sweet spot is a place, often numerical as opposed to physical, where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution.

In the context of a racquet, bat or similar sporting instrument, sweet spot is often believed to be the same as the center of percussion
Center of percussion

The center of percussion is the point on an object where a perpendicular impact will produce translational and rotational forces which perfectly cancel each other out at some given pivot point, so that the pivot will not be moving momentarily after the impulse....
.

Sporting origin

The term originally referred to various pieces of sport
Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
ing equipment, notably cricket
Cricket

Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games team sport that originated in southern England. The earliest definite reference is dated 1598, and it is now played in more than 100 countries....
 and baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
 bats and tennis
Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
 racquets. When hitting the ball, the bat (for instance) will rebound, but there is a location along the bat where this force is completely balanced out by turning force of the bat. If the ball is hit closer to the end of the bat, the grip of the bat will try to rotate forward out of the batter's hands, whereas if the batter hits it closer to the handle, the bat's tip will try to rotate forward. There is a small "sweet spot" where these two tendencies cancel out. The "sweet spot" location on a given baseball bat varies however it is approximately 6-1/2" from the end of the barrel.

Although the sweet spot gives a powerful and clean shot, peak ball speed occurs nearer the tip of the racquet where the racquet is travelling at greater speed.

Non-sporting use

The term is now used in other fields. For instance, consider bridge-building. Long spans, notably over deep gorges, can be served only by a suspension bridge
Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge where the main load-bearing elements are hung from suspension cables. While modern suspension bridges with level decks date from the early 19th century, earlier types are reported from the 3rd century BC....
, while shorter spans can use arch bridge
Arch bridge

An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side....
s or cantilever
Cantilever

A cantilever is a Beam supported on only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by Moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing....
 solutions. In the middle is a sort of grey area, where the materials needed to construct an arch (for instance) would be about equal to the expense of the cabling needed for a suspension design. This is the "sweet spot" for the cable-stayed bridge
Cable-stayed bridge

A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns , with cables supporting the bridge deck.There are two major classes of cable-stayed bridges: In a harp design, the cables are made nearly parallel by attaching cables to various points on the tower so that the height of attachment of each cable on the tower is sim...
 that reduces the cabling and the materials.

Human talents

People often refer to their sweet spot when discussing their ability to perform some task or sport, meaning some element of the task that they do particularly well.

Body piercing

"Sweet spot" in body piercing
Body piercing

Body piercing is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which body piercing jewelry may be worn....
 refers to the optimal place to pierce the nasal septum
Nasal septum

The nasal septum separates the left and right airways in the nose, dividing the two nostrils.It is Depression by the Depressor septi nasi muscle....
. This spot is located between the nasal cartilage and the bottom of the nose. For more information, see Septum piercing
Nose piercing

Nose piercing is the Body piercing of the skin or cartilage which forms any part of the nose, normally for the purpose of wearing jewelry; among the different varieties of nose piercings, the nostril piercing is the most common....
.

Commuting sweet spot


Electronics

The term refers to any location in which the reception of a signal is better than usual. This can refer to wireless computer network signals or conventional radio transmissions.

Paintball

In paintball
Paintball

Paintball is a game in which players eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint , usually shot from a carbon dioxide or compressed-gas powered paintball gun ....
, sweet spot refers to setting paintball marker
Paintball marker

A paintball marker, also known as a paintball gun, is the central or main piece of equipment in the sport of paintball. Markers make use of an expanding gas such as carbon dioxide or High Pressure Air to propel Paintball equipment#Paintballs through the barrel....
 input pressure so that the valve yields the highest gas efficiency per shot. Finding the sweet spot involves charting the muzzle velocity at various pressures, usually in 25 psi increments, to locate the highest peak velocity for a given valve dwell. The actual muzzle velocity is then controlled either through solenoid dwell on electronic valves, or hammer force in mechanical markers.

Trigger bounce and ramping
Some players refer to "sweet spot" as holding the trigger at the critical point where the marker will continually trip and cycle through mechanical kickback and vibration. In tournaments, this effect is called trigger bounce and is prohibited both on most fields and in most leagues due to the unconstrained cycle rate. Trigger bounce may be permitted in fields and tournaments that allow ramping
Paintball marker

A paintball marker, also known as a paintball gun, is the central or main piece of equipment in the sport of paintball. Markers make use of an expanding gas such as carbon dioxide or High Pressure Air to propel Paintball equipment#Paintballs through the barrel....
, a trigger mode where markers slowly switch from true semi-automatic to fully automatic as long as the player continually pulls the trigger past a specified rate. Ramping is more commonly legal, as a ramping gun may be electronically locked to a maximum cyclic rate, ensuring fairness and a sane paint volume from the marker. Trigger modes are checked with chronographs, most of which have a balls per second feature.

Trigger bounce in electronic markers is considered a problem, as trigger ramping is a legal, simpler, and more reliable way to achieve the effect. It may be solved by either increasing the marker's trigger filter (minimum linear distance in trigger return before the marker will cycle), or trigger delay (minimum time delay before the marker will cycle). Mechanical markers are devoid of this problem, and must have special force-return, reactive triggers, or other mechanisms to achieve a similar effect. These modifications are rare, as they emulate an unconstrained fully automatic trigger instead of a ramp trigger, and are prohibited at most paintball fields and in tournament play.

Requirements Management

The term is used in requirements management
Requirements management

Requirements management is the process of eliciting, documenting, analyzing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders....
 to refer a requirement
Requirement

In engineering, a requirement is a singular documented need of what a particular product or service should be or do. It is most commonly used in a formal sense in systems engineering or software engineering....
 that has found a perfect balance between ambiguity and understandability. Such requirements are not "over specified".

Speaker Systems

Audiophiles/Recording Engineers will refer to a "sweet spot" as the exact center point between two speakers where an individual is fully capable of hearing the stereo audio mix the way it was intended to be heard by the mixer
Mixer

Mixer may refer to:An electronics device:* Electronic mixer, a device for mixing signals* Frequency mixer, a telecommunications device used to alter the carrier frequency of a signal...


Armor

The term indicates an area of thinner coverage by whatever plating is being used. A round expended upon this spot will cause more harm.

See also

  • Gridlock
    Gridlock

    Gridlock is a term describing an inability to move on a transport network. The term originates from a situation possible in a grid network where intersections are blocked, prohibiting vehicles from moving through the intersection or backing up to an upstream intersection....