My new book, [1]How To, comes out on September 3^rd (preorder:
   [2]Amazon, [3]Barnes & Noble, [4]IndieBound, and [5]Apple Books).

   One of the most exciting things about writing How To was that, for a
   few chapters, I was able to reach out to some extremely cool people who
   were willing to apply their unique expertise to ridiculous tasks. Among
   those who generously agreed to help was [6]Serena Williams.

   Hereās a portion of the chapter āHow to Catch a Droneā, in which Serena
   helped test whether tennis serves could be an effective countermeasure
   against flying robots ā¦ by taking a drone out onto a court and hitting
   tennis balls at it until it crashed.
     __________________________________________________________________

How to Catch a Drone

   A wedding-photography drone is buzzing around above you. You donāt know
   what itās doing there and you want it to stop.
   [drone_1.png?w=309&h=256]

   Letās suppose you have a garage full of sports equipmentā baseballs,
   tennis rackets, lawn darts, you name it. Which sportās projectiles
   would work best for hitting a drone? And who would make the best
   anti-drone guard? A baseball pitcher? A basketball player? A tennis
   player? A golfer? Someone else?
   [drone_4.png?w=619&h=485]

   There are a few factors to consider ā accuracy, weight, range, and
   projectile size.
   [drone_5.png?w=719&h=394]

   One sport I couldnāt find good data on was tennis. I found some studies
   of tennis pro accuracy, but they involved hitting targets marked on the
   court, rather than in the air.

   So I reached out to Serena Williams.

   To my pleasant surprise, she was happy to help out. Her husband,
   Alexis, offered a sacrificial drone, a DJI Mavic Pro 2 with a broken
   camera. They headed out to her practice court to see how effective the
   worldās best tennis player would be at fending off a robot invasion.

   The few studies I could find suggested tennis players would score
   relatively low com- pared to athletes who threw projectilesā more like
   kickers than pitchers. My tentative guess was that a champion player
   would have an accuracy ratio around 50 when serving, and take 5ā7 tries
   to hit a drone from 40 feet. (Would a tennis ball even knock down a
   drone? Maybe it would just ricochet off and cause the drone to wobble!
   I had so many questions.)
   [drone_8.png?w=644&h=332]

   Alexis flew the drone over the net and hovered there, while Serena
   served from the baseline.

   Her first serve went low. The second zipped past the drone to one side.
   [drone_9.png?w=477&h=183]

   The third serve scored a direct hit on one of the propellers. The drone
   spun, momentarily seemed like it might stay in the air, then flipped
   over and smashed into the court. Serena started laughing as Alexis
   walked over to investigate the crash site, where the drone lay on the
   court near several propeller fragments.
   [drone_10.png?w=359&h=220]

   I had expected a tennis pro would be able to hit the drone in five to
   seven tries; she got it in three.
   [drone_11.png?w=723&h=732]

References

   1. https://xkcd.com/how-to/
   2. https://www.amazon.com/How-Absurd-Scientific-Real-World-Problems/dp/0525537090/
   3. http://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/2/trackingcode/PRH5522E62429
   4. http://links.penguinrandomhouse.com/type/affiliate/isbn/9780525537090/siteID/8001/retailerid/6/trackingcode/penguinrandom
   5. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to/id1451461524?mt=11
   6. https://www.serenaventures.com/