FACTORS AFFECTING BOUNCINESS OF A PING PONG BALL

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Aim: Factors Affecting Bounciness of a Ping Pong Ball

Hypothesis:

Background Information

The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form. The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection

The ball, released from a certain point will gain energy and fall down at the speed of 9.81ms (the acceleration due to gravity), the ball will then hit the surface and will theoretically bounce back up. Some of the energy gained by the ball will be dispersed to the surface and the ball should bounce at a lower height than the original bounce. Now different surface have different state of hardness and texture. The harder the surface, the less energy will be lost by the ball and he higher it will bounce. Now, the smoother the surface the less energy will be dissipated through the surface (see laws of reflection), and the higher the ball will bounce.

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The coefficient of restitution is a measure of the elasticity of the collision between ball and floor. Elasticity is a measure of how much bounce there is, or in other words, how much of the  of the colliding objects before the collision remains as kinetic energy of the objects after the collision. This coefficient is different for each surface. The formulae is :

c = coefficient of restitution (dimensionless)

h = bounce height

H = drop height

Variables:

  1. Independent Variable: rigidity and elasticity of the surface on which the ball bounces
  2. Dependant Variables: the bounciness of the ping-pong ball
  3. Controlled ...

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