An investigation into what affects the height of the bounce of a squash ball

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An investigation into what affects the height

of the bounce of a squash ball

I have been asked to investigate the variables, which could affect the behaviour of a squash ball when it is dropped.

The variables that could have an effect are the temperature of the ball (or the pressure), the height that the ball is dropped at and the surface the ball lands on.

The temperature of the ball could affect the height the ball bounces

at because when the heat of the ball increases it means there is a higher pressure inside the ball because the particles have more energy and are moving faster. This means the particles will be pushing the sides of the ball outwards so the ball does not compress as much. Because of this less energy will be lost in compressing the ball so there is more kinetic energy for the ball to bounce higher.

The surface the ball lands on could affect the height the ball bounces at because on softer surfaces such as foam lots of energy is lost in making the foam move inwards so the ball does not have as much kinetic energy to bounce higher. 

With a harder surface the ball would not make such an indent so less energy would be wasted on this and more would be left over to make the ball bounce higher.

 I will be investigating what happens to the height of the bounce when the ball is dropped from different heights. I predict that the ball will bounce higher when dropped from a higher height. I think this is because the higher you drop the ball the faster it goes due to there being more time for potential energy to convert into kinetic energy. This means that when the ball hits the floor it has more kinetic energy and therefore more energy left for the bounce.

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The diagrams above show the conversion between potential and kinetic energy. At point A the ball is dropped. The force of gravity is a pull making it gravitational potential energy. Gravitational potential energy is calculated by mass x gravity (about 10m/s/s on earth) x height.  Point B is where the ball is falling; this is where it has been converted to kinetic energy because the ball is in motion.

At point c the ball looses the most energy because it is compressed making the ...

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