What is the purpose of the light and dark color of a racket in table tennis?

Question

Ping Pong

Answer 1

At school they always explained me that the thickness is the difference, but ofcourse that could be BS.

Answer 2

Terminat. . ., its red & black.

Answer 3

July 1, 1986 a slew of new rules were introduced in table tennis.  Among those was the two color rule, stating that the rubber on one side of the racket must be black, and the other side red.

2.04.06 The surface of the covering material on a side of the blade, or of a side of the blade if it is left uncovered, shall be matt, bright red on one side and black on the other.

This was put in place because players were using rubbers with different properties to gain an unfair advantage in games.  (IE, a rubber with a high amount of spin on one side, and one with very little spin on the other)  Introducing the two color rule made it easy to determine the properties of the rubber being hit with, and reduce the advantage of twiddling the bat (Rotating the bat to switch sides during play).

Even though most pros could determine the rubber being used, even without the 2 color rule, spectators could not understand why seemingly simple shots were being missed.

Many rackets used in recreational play are red one one side, and blue on the other.  These rackets are not legal for tournament play, and neither are sandpaper rackets.

Answer 4

nothing

Answer 5

Eve, I don't think there is any purpose other than to simply differentiate between the two sides. Red and blue are the two most dominant colours of choice and when watching ping pong or table tennis the people can see the score as Red 6 Blue 3 for example.