Concrete got bounced on the most, 5 times, and the highest, 55cm. Therefore any change to the height from which the ball starts with affects the height to which it bounces to. If the ball bounces up more than .5 meter then, it is more elastic. When it is dropped, the air molecules will squish together and then spring apart. = The distance between the bottom of the ball at the top of its arc after bouncing and the ground. Therefore the ball dropped from the higher height must give out more thermal energy in order to end up with the same amount of energy as the other ball. The combination of the material properties of a ball (surface textures, actual materials, amount of air, hardness/ softness, and so on) affects the height of its bounce. and tries to catch the balls on time. As in both cases the main form of energy is GPE it follows that the higher the ball is dropped from, the higher the ball will bounce. This is because the ball starts with more GPE. The balls bounced higher on the concrete We use cookies and those of third party providers to deliver the best possible web experience and to compile statistics. For the lowest three points air resistance is approximately equal to zero due to the ball having a low velocity, as it was dropped from a low height, and therefore hits less air particles per second than a ball traveling at a faster speed. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. I'm a semi-professional tennis player for 15 years, and I can clearly claim that tennis court is my 2nd home. STEP4 - Watch as the smaller ball flies off into the air! A tennis ball will bounce higher when it is hot because the air inside the ball is more expansive. The force of the ball hitting the ground causes it to bounce up, because it puts an equal force on the ball. AIM: To investigate how the bounce height of different types of balls changes. The ball did not reach terminal velocity however as it did not have enough time to accelerate to its terminal velocity. Warm up the ball before it is used to increase its bounce. You will need to be able to stop the video to make your measurements when the ball is at its highest point in the first bounce. troubles my partner and I had during our experiment along with the problems we by Jonah Lehrer on September 8, 2011. he official rule book of tennis is 35 pages long. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. As for catching the balls on time, we changed our hand positioning and When the temperature of a tennis ball changes, it becomes more elastic and has an intriguing reaction with its gas-filled core. The reason balls bounce is quite advanced science. Abstract and Figures. Therefore the ball goes higher. This still took us time and we still couldn't catch the "That's The Way The Ball Bounces," The Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco, CA. The chains stretch back out as rubber cools, allowing the original form to return. were able to construct a successful experiment. As energy cannot be created or destroyed it follows that the energy must have come from the energy that the ball possesses. I used a Flexible measuring tape to measure what the height was. Gravel got bounced on the least, 1 time . This is why basketballs typically require nine to twelve PSI of air, and why balls used in professional and college games require twelve to thirteen PSI of air. Because of this, a fully inflated ball may look deflated if the temperature drops quickly. Answer (1 of 2): Some surfaces absorb more energy than others do. This was when the ball was falling in air. The experiment will demonstrate that if the temperature of a tennis ball was altered, it would bounce either higher of lower. 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. Gather 15 to 20 tennis balls and a measuring tape. Therefore, harder surfaces will ultimately bounce a ball higher. Friday - 25/04/14 For the most part, the document is a case study in compulsive precision. Length of Lesson: 30 - 45 minutes. Balls bounce differently on different axes. For a falling object the Coefficient to restitution (C, ) is equal to the velocity squared as the object is travelling at as it leaves the floor (v, ) divided by the velocity squared as it hits the floor (v, If a ball is dropped in a vacuum. However if two results are recorded that do not fit the trend of other results nor are close to results recorded for that height then the experiments accuracy would be brought into doubt. Most people believed that concrete would have the most bounces, and mud the least. In this experiment you will use a ball filled with air. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The ball weighs exactly 2.5g. As the ball falls it hits against air particles. As they are pushed about, the molecules in the ball collide with and rub across each other." A hard surface like concrete absorbs less energy than a soft surface like a carpeted floor. Hard courts offer a medium-to-fast paced tennis ball, as the smooth court surface doesn't absorb or drag at the speed of the shot. Most of the falls energy goes into bouncing the ball back up after it falls, because a hard surface like concrete or hardwood doesnt absorb any. The ball did not appear to reach its terminal velocity which also supports my prediction. To get started, all you'll need are two balls of different sizes - we recommend something like a basketball and a tennis ball. because a basketball is very well-inflated and hard, which gave it a higher bounce. A decrease in bounce is caused by a colder temperature. As gravity remains the same the amount of work acting on the ball remains the same (apart from slightly more air resistance due to the ball travelling faster and so hitting more air particles per second, but the effect of this is negligible) and the ball travels further before stopping. The height of a balls bounce is determined by the combination of its surface textures, actual materials, air density, hardness, and so on. didn't catch the ball on time before it went back down to the ground, we would get If you were to see a ball drop to the ground in slow motion, you would see its shape change dramatically. It should be on a smooth cement surface for optimal ball bouncing. Chemistry: The Central Science (Theodore E. Brown; H. Eugene H LeMay; Bruce E. Bursten; Catherine Murphy; Patrick Woodward), Psychology (David G. Myers; C. Nathan DeWall), Civilization and its Discontents (Sigmund Freud), Brunner and Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing (Janice L. Hinkle; Kerry H. Cheever), Principles of Environmental Science (William P. Cunningham; Mary Ann Cunningham), Business Law: Text and Cases (Kenneth W. Clarkson; Roger LeRoy Miller; Frank B. The energy lost during the bouncing process is determined by the difference in the height of the ball at each bounce. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Two different types of balls, Penn Championship and Non-Championship will be compared. Use two people to measure the results; one person to drop the ball and one to measure the height to which it reaches after bouncing. The experiment was conducted well however as the utmost efforts were brought into place to avoid parallax error and it was ensured as far as possible that factors that affected how high the ball bounced, excluding the height, were kept constant throughout the experiment. Take a ball and place it on the 150 cm line and drop it. hypothesis, we predicted that a rubber ball would bounce the highest on rough The energy that the ball hits the floor with is kinetic energy. Most of the points on grass are very short. 30% of the energy that the ball hits the floor wit is lost. External factors, i.e. If you are looking for a challenging sport, tennis is an excellent choice for the winter months. An increase in h1, assuming g and m stay constant, results in an increase in m g h1 which results in an increase in GPE. A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. Also the mass of the ball affects the chances of the ball reaching its terminal velocity. Try your bounce test in different weather conditions. 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As the ball flattening upon impact with the floor is not visible as it happens so quickly it would be almost impossible to measure the size of the ball on impact with the floor. ping pong 2 cm 3 cm 2 cm 2 cm, basketball 82 cm 84 cm 80 82 If you dont properly store your balls, youll have to replace them more frequently. discovered that there is a handful of information that would assist my partner and I According to our background research, a Line up the top of the table tennis ball with the top of the metre ruler (i.e. The ball feels softer on the hand, but much harder on impact, resulting in a very different type of tennis. Place one of the tennis balls in the freezer for 20 mins 2. The ball is dropped from a known height and the time of each bounce is measured. The balls finish up with the same amount of energy and the only energy given out is thermal energy. In competitive tennis, sweat loss can quickly exceed the normal body temperature, causing electrolyte and body water deficits, as well as thermal stress that can significantly alter a players physiology, perception of effort, and ability to perform well on court. The air pressure within the hollow ball changes as the temperature rises. Also the ball flattening upon impact doesnt have to be taken into account whereas if one was measuring from the top of the ball as it hits the floor to the top of the ball before dropping it or at the top of its arc after bouncing or the middle of the ball as it hits the ground to the middle of the ball before dropping it or the middle of the ball at the top of its bounce then the fact that the ball flattens momentarily on impact with the floor would have to be taken into account. will differ from the height that the ball would have reached had it been dropped in a vacuum. Reproduction of material from this website without written permission is strictly prohibited. How can you measure the height a ball bounces? Do you have specific questions about your science project? For any other use, please contact Science Buddies. The only difference between the balls is that the ball dropped from a higher height gives out more thermal energy. Why do golf balls bounce so high on concrete? Obviously, a ball won't bounce as high on carpet. This will be repeated five times, possibly more (for accuracy), for each height and the top and bottom results will be discounted. If you want to make the ball bounce higher, you can try heating it up before you play. When the ball hits the floor and stops, that energy has to go somewhere. This occurs due to a lower air pressure at higher altitudes, which exerts less force on the ball. I will drop the ball 3 You may print and distribute up to 200 copies of this document annually, at no charge, for personal and classroom educational use. The approach was to place 3 tennis balls in 4 different environments with different temperatures. Steel balls bounce higher than rubber balls. were able to construct a successful experiment. experiment. 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. This will mean that I will have to have the interval between the different heights from which the ball is dropped from less than 20cm, probably at 10cm. Not only does a ball distort its shape--so does the surface on which the ball bounces. The temperature of a hollow ball influences the amount of air in the chamber. "Balls Bouncing Off of Surfaces.". What factors affect the bounce height of a ball? solid. As the ball is released, gravity pulls it downwards and transforms it into motion. results, one of the many being that the harder the surface the ball was bouncing on, Conclusion: The ball gains energy of motion, known as kinetic energy. The Racquet Sports Industry's website states that, like human fingerprints, no two balls seem to be alike, and each has slightly different bouncing ability. If you're playing under 68 degrees, it's a good idea to make sure the ball doesn't bounce too much. This is because it is easiest as the figure read of the meter rule is the result. The results are shorter rallies and quicker points. I do not believe that any ball will reach terminal velocity in this experiment seeing as the maximum height that they can be dropped from is 2m and, as the ball is quite smooth, I do not believe that it will have enough time to accelerate to its terminal velocity before it hits the floor. Hot balls were the more likely to bounce higher than cold balls. More thermal energy is also produced. To find out what affects the height to which a ball bounces. EQUIPMENT: 1 metre ruler 1 table tennis ball. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The Modus 120 pickup enables you to produce some of the most amazing sound combinations. For instance, you can use old balls for the second round of the experiment compared to new balls. Then when dropping the ball again eye level was kept level with the blue tack. The temperature of the tennis ball has an impact on its bounce. Try comparing a hot day to a cold day. From this it can be seen that using the average of the middle three results is more accurate than using the average of all five, as it automatically discounts most anomalies. Air density will not change enough to affect the flight of the ball seeing as all the results will be collected during a brief period on one day. It shows that heights were recorded that exceeded the height that the ball would have reached had it been dropped in a vacuum. They are typically softer, allowing them to give them a little more space and make them easier to hit. Changes in the area of linoleum floor tile that the ball collided with may have affected the height to which it bounced to thus producing variation between results. After the ball reaches terminal velocity, no more GPE is converted into KE is the ball cannot get any faster. - Four surfaces (carpet, rough concrete, dirt and smooth concrete). Hypothesis: if different balls are bounced on different surfaces, then a rubber ball would bounce the highest on a hard, smooth concrete surface because a rubber ball is well-inflated and made of rubber which would give it more kinetic energy and less air resistance. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot. The maximum and minimum results were included when working out the variation between results however, seeing as the maximum and minimum results were produced by the experiment and are therefore part of the variation between results produced by the experiment. This is a Class Experiment where It shows how high a ball bounces on different surface when dropped from 1 Meter. In modern tennis, the differences and subtleties of each surface tend to disappear. Some balls to try are: soccer, basketball, volleyball, golf, tennis, or handball. The bounce should be between 53 and 58 inches. Tennis balls are different at sea level and at high altitudes. Try bouncing different kinds of balls to test this question. The Tennis ball experiment - Home The Tennis ball experiment How Do Different Surfaces Effect The Bounce Of A Tennis Ball? A similar length stick, marked in 5-10cm bands of colour. Instead, as the ball is still always loosing GPE so long as it is still falling, all GPE is converted into thermal energy. catcher to catch the balls. Tennis balls bounce differently in the high altitude and at sea. In our Record this result in your assignment book under trial 3 for the tennis ball. This means that if a heavier ball is to be used then it will need to be dropped from higher to reach its terminal velocity. The strength of Nadals forehand is what makes him so good on clay. Concrete will help bounce a ball the highest as it's hard and The tennis ball was then dropped from various heights; 1, 1.5 and 2 meters above a hard surface, using a meter ruler, before it was dropped onto the ground and the resulting bounce height measured. High bounce ball 2. We then bounced the balls on the surfaces and Make a note of which one bounces up higher and how high they bounce! - Rubber ball x Which surface bounces a ball the highest? 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