Investigating the bounce height of a squash ball

. If you throw the ball not drop it.

2. If you change the surface which may be harder or softer than the first one.

3. If the ruler is not upright at 90° to the table.

4. Don't throw the ball around before you start the experiment or the ball will heat up and this may affect your results.

Safety: the only danger you may encounter is the misuse of the equipment which may be a danger to you and the other students.

E.g. not placing the equipment correctly this can easily drop on someones foot.

Prediction: I think that the bounce height will increase at the same rate as the drop height, and should form a linear shape.

Here is a rough graph showing how the line should look like if my prediction was correct.

The range I chose for my experiment was from 10cm to 70cm.

Here is a table of my results:

Drop Height (cm)

Bounce height (cm)

0

2

20

4

30

5

40

9

50

1

60

7

70

9

Here is a graph for my results:

The results from my graphs show that it forms a linear shape and that my prodiction was correct. You can tell from the graph that the line is not very accurate and there were a few anomalous results, This is because we used our eyes to to give a mesurment of our results and it is not the most accurate way.

When the ball is dropped it speeds up untill it hits the ground where it will squash and bounce back up again. The higher the drop height the faster the ball will fall and when it reaches the ground it will squash more causing it to bounce higherand stay at a steady rate all the way through.

To make this experiment really accurate you would most probably have to use a camracorder, you would have to record the bounces and play them back slowly then record your results.

Conclution: To improve my work I could have done more results as I only done a few and also used a more accurate way of measuring the bounce height.