Factors affecting the bounce of a ball

Apparatus: 

• Two metre rules
• A squash ball
• A crazy ball
• A hollow plastic ball
• A hollow wooden ball

Procedure:

1. Place two metre rules vertically on a door or wall so that you have the markings to measure anything up to two metres high.
2. Take one of the balls and hold it in line with the 1m mark. Then drop it and quickly bend to observe the highest height it reaches after the bounce.
3. Repeat this procedure with all the other balls
4. Then repeat the procedure by dropping the ball from the 2m mark
5. The experiment may be repeated several times if time allows.

Fair Test:

• The size of all the balls used was the same with only slight variation. The mass was not the same because different materials have varying density.
• They were all at room temperature
• The surface on which they were made to bounce was a constant factor (marble)
• The estimation of the height of the bounce was done by the same person to allow common error, if any

Safe Test:

• There was no such apparatus that needed much care except for the handling of the metre rule, which may have hurt someone.

Experimental Setup:

Observation:

Raw Data

Table 1: Table showing the height of bounce of different balls

Processed Data

Table 2: Table showing the average height of bounce of various balls

Graphical Representation of Data

Graph 1: Graph showing the relation between the height of bounce and the material of the ball

        

Graphical Analysis: The graph clearly depicts that the ball with the highest ability to bounce in the ‘crazy’ ball while the ball that bounces the least is the squash ball. The solid wooden ball being very heavy bounces very little, though more than the squash ball. The plastic ball also shows average ability to bounce high. The bouncing height of the squash ball, wooden ball and the crazy ball nearly doubles when thrown from the 2m mark as compared to 1m, while the bounce of the plastic ball more than doubles. The squash ball probably has such a low bouncing height because it is hollow and is specially crafted to bounce only upon warming up. The wooden ball is too heavy to bounce much and thus has a constricted ability. The plastic ball may be too light and may have been slowed down by the resistance of the air while traveling down to an extent that its bounce is not too high. The crazy ball with its crafting to be a solid ball made of material that has high elasticity allows it to bounce the most. Thus, definite positive correlation has been established in this order of material of balls.

Conclusion: Thus, through thorough analysis and experimenting it can be said that the hypothesis stated earlier about the bouncing height of the crazy ball and the squash ball holds true. The order in which the material affects the bouncing height of the ball is: The squash ball bounces the least, the wooden ball a little more, the plastic ball bounces more with a considerable difference from the previous one and the crazy ball bounces the most with a very big margin from the plastic ball.

Evaluation: Overall, this experiment proved to be successful and yielded accurate results. However it could have been made more accurate through certain measures taken:

• The estimation of the height of the bounce could have been done by many people and the average could have been taken for further accuracy
• A lot more trials could have been taken to come to more general conclusions.
• More and more types of balls could have been used to get a long series of results and better generalizations
• The time taken for a ball to hit the ground and bounce to its maximum could have been taken and whether the fastest bounce is also the highest could have been investigated.