Does the height a ball is dropped from affect its efficiency?

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Hailey Allen                                                                                                                                                 Page                                                

Does the height a ball is dropped from affect its efficiency?

Aim

For my investigation I am going to investigate how the dropping height will affect the efficiency of a ball.

Background information

Energy is needed to do everything. Light, sound, movement and heat are all examples of things that need energy to exist. . Energy is defined as the ability to do work - to make something happen e.g. to move something. If something can apply a force over a distance, it has energy.

An object can store energy as a result of its position. When a ball is held at a height, it stores energy. This stored energy is referred to as potential energy. It is called potential energy because the ball has the potential to drop (converting the potential energy into kinetic/movement energy), if it is let go of. The higher the ball is from the ground, the more kinetic energy it will need to fall back down. The kinetic energy is converted from the Gravitational Potential Energy the ball has when it is elevated. Gravitational potential energy is the energy stored in an object as the result of its vertical position. The ball falls to the ground due to the force of gravity by converting the gravitational potential energy (GPE) into kinetic energy needed for the ball to move. The higher the ball is elevated, the more GPE it has. As the ball falls down, its GPE falls as it is converted into kinetic energy. The amount of kinetic energy stored in the ball increases as more and more of the gravitational potential energy is converted. The more kinetic energy the ball has stored, the faster it moves. The ball increases velocity until it is blocked by something. The more velocity a ball has when it hits the ground, the more energy there is to be converted.

When you first buy a tennis ball, it is sealed in an air tight container. This is so the ball has more compressed air inside it; this helps it to bounce higher because when the ball is dropped and hits the ground, the air inside is pushed to the top of the ball. The air reacts to this by pushing back, causing the ball to have more uplift because the force behind the ball is greater still. Also when the ball hits the ground, there is friction, which transforms some of the kinetic energy into thermal energy (heat) and often sounds as well. All the rest of the kinetic energy that hasn't been wasted as thermal energy or sound will be transformed into elastic potential energy when the ball comes into contact with the ground. When a ball hits a surface, all the kinetic energy it has stored is immediately transformed. The floor, the ball or both become slightly dented out of shape as a result of the velocity and force they collided with. As the ball and floor try to regain their original shape, they repel each other and immediately transform the elastic potential energy they have stored into kinetic energy. This energy now stored in the ball sends it into the air. The more kinetic energy there was in the ball to begin with, the more energy there will be left to convert back into kinetic energy. The ball will rise, or bounce higher.

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If a ball were completely efficient, no energy would be lost during the bouncing process. For this to happen, no energy can be lost with sound or thermal energy due to friction. If a ball lost none of this energy whilst being dropped and hitting the floor, it would bounce to the same height as it was dropped from. The ball needed a certain amount of kinetic energy to move from the height it was dropped from to the surface it hit. If the ball were completely efficient, it would still have exactly that same amount of energy needed ...

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