Big Science Top: Physics Bouncing Ball Experiment

Then as the balls elasticity causes it to expand potential energy is transformed back into kinetic energy in the form of the ball bouncing back up off the ground. At best a ball can only be nearly elastic such as a superball.

Pdf Introducing Viscoelasticity To Precollege Students Through A

The simple act of bouncing a ball may not conjure up feelings of physics but there is more physics going on than meets the eye.

Physics bouncing ball experiment. Before conducting this experiment use this time to formulate your hypothesis. Tape the meter stick to the wall or table as shown. If the energy transfers were perfect and there were no energy losses the bouncing ball.

When a dropped ball collides with the ground its kinetic energy is transferred into potential energy as the ball compresses. In other words it is assumed that the kinetic energy of the ball is conserved before and after the bounce. It is shown that if a ball is dropped onto a flat surface with an initial spin or component of velocity horizontal to the surface the ball will travel horizontally in one direction while it executes multiple bounces.

In classical mechanics books bouncing ball physics problems are often modeled as being elastic. When superimposed a beautiful image of a bouncing ball looking like a graph emerges making the physics come forward. This will be repeated five times possibly more for accuracy for each height and the top and bottom results will be discounted.

I am going to investigate how the height a ball is dropped from can affect the height of the bounce on impact with the ground. To broaden my investigation i. Which ball do you think will bounce the.

Set the wooden board flat on the ground next to a wall or table. In reality this is not the case. If you review those concepts you will be better prepared for this experiment.

Tarik saif 10 sn. Stage 2 also loses energy as sound when the ball hits the ground. In this image 25 pictures were taken each second.

The results of an analysis of two target surfaces used in a bouncing ball experiment are presented. Stage 4 loses energy for the same reason as stage 1. Stage 3 loses energy for the same reason as stage 2.

And the ball becomes warmer. Equations we learn in primary and secondary school teach us that the ball cannot bounce higher of the height from which the ball was dropped off. Extracts from this document.

2 will be from the bottom of the ball as it hits the floor to the bottom of the ball at the top of its arc after bouncing. With this experiment we attain precisely this. Make sure that the meter stick starts with 0 is at the bottom.

An average will then be taken. An investigation into how the height that a ball is dropped from influences the height of the bounce of different balls. This experiment will use the concepts of total energy kinetic energy ke and potential energy pe that you have already studied.

Those of you who play squash will be familiar with this.

Bouncing Ball Data Table Doc