Measure the height of the ball from the ground to the bottom of the ball. Calculate the potential energy of the ball before it was dropped and then when it reaches its maximum bounce height . Then calculate the energy lost to the bounce.
Why is energy lost in a bouncing ball?
The ball slows down, deforms temporarily and shoots back up. The air in the ball acts like a spring—it gets compressed and expands again. During the collision, some of the ball’s energy is converted into heat . As a consequence, the ball shoots up with less energy than it had when it reached Earth.
Does the ball lose the same percentage of energy with each bounce or is there an increase or decrease?
We have the kinetic energy of the ball and the potential energy due to gravity. At the top of the bounce , there is no kinetic energy so all the energy is potential. For example, if a ball bounces 80% of its height on each bounce, then the ball is losing 20% of its energy on each bounce.
Why do different balls bounce differently?
When the ball hits the court, its bounce actually loses momentum by transferring some of its energy —into a different form. This means that to keep the ball bouncing to the same height, players must continually put energy into the ball with each bounce.
What energy changes occur each time the ball is dropped and bounces?
When a dropped ball collides with the ground, its kinetic energy is transferred into potential energy as the ball compresses. Then, as the ball’s 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.
Which ball bounces higher when dropped together?
When all three balls are dropped from the same height, the rubber ball will bounce the highest because it has the greatest elasticity. When the rubber ball hits the ground it gets compressed, or squished, and because it is very elastic, it quickly returns to its original shape.
Where does the energy go when a ball stops bouncing?
When you drop a ball, gravity pulls it toward the floor. The ball gains energy of motion, known as kinetic energy. When the ball hits the floor and stops, that energy has to go somewhere. The energy goes into deforming the ball– from its original round shape to a squashed shape.
What surface does a ball bounce best on?
As the ball is released, gravity pulls the ball downwards and transforms that potential energy into kinetic energy, the energy of motion. The harder the court surface is the more energy a dropped ball retains and the higher it rebounds. A basketball bounces pretty well on hardwood , but even better on concrete.
What surface does a tennis ball bounce the highest?
Which surface does a tennis ball bounce the highest on? Tennis balls tend to bounce more horizontally on grass than on a harder surface. As the ball hits the blades of grass, they bend and don’t provide as much upward rebound. This results in faster, lower shots that often produce shorter rallies and quicker points.
Why does a ball bounce higher when dropped higher?
Because the ball is softer than the floor, it does most of the denting and stores most of the energy. ... When you drop a ball from a greater height, it has more kinetic energy just before it hits the floor and stores more energy during the bounce—it dents farther as it comes to a stop.
Does the surface you bounce the ball on matter in bounce height?
Did the basketball bounce much higher on the harder surface compared with the softer one? One factor that can affect the basketball’s collision with the ground is the type of surface the ball collides with. When a basketball bounces off of a surface, some of its energy is absorbed by that surface.
Which ball has the most energy?
Even though the bowling ball is much more massive than the baseball, a hard-hit baseball carries more kinetic energy than a typical bowling ball because of its high speed.
What do you expect about the bounce height of the ball?
The height to which a ball will bounce depends on the height from which it is dropped , what the ball is made out of (and if it is inflated, what the pressure is), and what the surface it bounces from is made out of. ... A ball’s gravitational potential energy is proportional to its height.
Why doesn’t a ball bounce back to its original height?
The reason it doesn’t bounce higher than where it started is simple: some of the ball’s energy is lost as heat when it bounces , so it doesn’t have as much going up as it did coming down. Knowing that, you might figure that a ball could never bounce higher than the height from which is was dropped.
What is the relationship between drop height and bounce height?
The relationship between drop height and bounce height is only linear for small drop heights . Once a ball reaches a certain height, the bounce height will begin to level off because the ball will reach its terminal velocity.
Which ball falls faster?
Galileo discovered that objects that are more dense, or have more mass , fall at a faster rate than less dense objects, due to this air resistance. A feather and brick dropped together. Air resistance causes the feather to fall more slowly.
