Ping pong table restoration
1500 words
Cocoa Beach High School
2012-2013

The goal:
I picked this topic because I own an old, beat up ping pong table and feel that if I restore it, it will help me return to the sport of table tennis. I am also part Korean and ping pong is one of their highly regarded sports. It is played casually and competitively in the country. Because ping pong has had a big impact on me ethnically, I feel that by restoring my old ping pong table would help me embrace their culture as well as become a well rounded person culturally.
At first the goal of my project was to create a miniature ping pong table due to budgetary restraints, but as the year progressed I felt that it would be better to restore my old table because it would yield more benefits. So I ended up changing the proposal.
The area of interaction my project fell under the category of human ingenuity. Human ingenuity is the processes and products of human creativity, and to consider their impact on society and the mind. My project being the restoration of a ping pong table meets all of the requirements of this subject (human ingenuity).
Specifications of my project were changed various times due to my different and incorrect thoughts and processes during the project. At first my specifications were incorrect with the first idea of the miniature ping pong table. Later these specifications were changed to a third of the size of a regulation table which would be:
Length: 36in
Width: 20in
Height: 10in
Net: 25in
Soon after I abandoned the idea of a mini ping pong table and changed it to the restoration of my old table. This caused me to only need a regulation board and net as well as replacement parts for my table. In the end my project would only fit 2 out of the four previous specifications which would be the ability to withstand multiple games and the ability to fold of easy storage.

Selection of sources:
My sources include 2 websites, 3 books and one interview. The websites I chose were stiga ping pong and the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). I found these websites because of previous knowledge of the subject (I own multiple stiga paddles and a table). The ITTF was used because it is the official league for table tennis and its website has specifications for all regulation tables.
I chose stiga due to their reputation of being the world’s greatest table tennis equipment manufacturer. Their site had a lot of information but I found the website’s page “tech specs” the most appealing. With the page talked about the types of wood, seasons for wood and the types of glue used to make their world class tables.
The ITTF has been around for many years and has been hosting the national and world wide table tennis tournaments. It has created the specifications and rules and regulations of the game. .
The three books I chose were Table Tennis: Step to Success, Everything You Know Is Pong, How Mighty Table Tennis Shapes Our World and The Ping Pong Game: Solutions a Better Way. The reason I chose these books was because of motivational and cultural purposes. By reading or at least seeing these books gave me motivation to work on the project. The reading of the books has given me a new cultural understanding of table tennis. Because of this I was able to look at different ethical aspects of this project.
My last source was an interview with a woodworker from 84 Lumber. We just talked about the different types of wood and which would work best for a ping pong table. He responded with a medium density particle board. When I asked why he said that because of its density the board would allow for a uniform bounce of required height (at least 9cm from 14cm above table).
With all of this information I find the validity of the websites, books and interview very credible.

Application of information:
The information I received from my sources allowed me to make decisions before I started the project. All of colors (only