Bouncing balls: Physics coursework

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Bouncing balls: Physics coursework

Plan:

It has been observed that squash players seem to warm there ball up before a game, and it seems to affect the bounce.

Variables

There are several factors which will effect the bounce of the ball, They are:

  • The height that the ball is dropped from.
  • The temperature of the ball.
  • The mass of the ball.
  • The force at which the ball is thrown with.
  • The surface of the ball (if it is hard or soft)

The factor I am going to look at will be the temperature of the ball when it is dropped.

The variables that I will not change are

  • The height that the ball will be dropped from,

  • The ball I will use and

  • The surface the ball is dropped on.

I will use all the same equipment. The only thing I will change is the temperature of the water, and in turn the ball

Equipment list:

  • 1 squash ball
  • 1 clamp stand
  • 1 table
  • 2 meter sticks
  • 1 heat mat
  • 1 tripod
  • 1 gauze
  • 1 beaker
  • 100cm³ of water
  • 1 thermometer
  • 1 pair of tongs
  • Several paper towels

Diagram

Preliminary work

Before I conducted my experiment I carried out some preliminary work. The aims of this work were to find a suitable height for me to drop the ball from and to decide what temperatures I would use when heating the ball.

I heated up a beaker with 100ml of water in it. I also had a squash ball in the beaker. I heated it up to 50°C, when the ball was at the right temperature, I dropped the ball from 2 meters. A person was lying on the floor with their head level to where they predicted the ball would bounce. This person recorded the height of the bounce. I put the ball back into the beaker and heated the water up to 60°C, 70°C, 80°C and 90°C. and repeated the experiment

Join now!

The ball bounced higher when the water it had been in was heated to a higher temperature.

I have decided that I will drop the ball from 2 meters. This will make it easier to see and measure the differences between the different bounces. This is because as the ball drops from 2 meters it will gain more kinetic energy as say it was dropped from 1 meter. This means when it hits the ground there is more energy which can be converted into propelling the ball back into the air.

I will drop the ball when the temperature ...

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