Squash Ball Investigation

The equipment I will use.

Fair test

To make the experiment a fair test I will drop each squash ball 3 times and then I will calculate the average of my results and plot the average on my graph, the only variable I will change is the height of the squash ball dropped.

To make this a fair test I must also keep the squash balls at a constant temperature, because if a squash ball gets hot the particles in side it gain energy from the heat, and start moving around more quicker. This forces more pressure around the edges causing it to bounce better.

A hot squash ball

Rubber. Particles (moving).

When a squash ball is cold all the molecules inside it slow down and cause less pressure, which makes the ball bounce worse.

A cold squash ball

Rubber Particles (still).

The surface of where the ball bounces has to stay the same to make it a fair test because other hard surfaces can make a squash ball bounce better than the bounce on a soft surfaces like carpet.

The squash balls also have to weigh the same because heavier ones will not bounce as well as the light balls

Results

I have completed my experiment and gathered these results...

Height-

25cm

50cm

75cm

1m

25

50

75

2m

225

Try 1 -

4

6

20

20

25

28

35

43

52

Try 2 -

5

7

9

20

24

30

33

43

51

Try 3 -

4

6

8

22

25

28

36

47

54

Average

4.3

6.33

9

20.6

24.6

28.6

24.6

44.3

52.3

Conclusions

My graph shows me that when the squash ball is dropped from a higher height then the ball bounces better. This happens because there is more potential energy in the ball, so my prediction was correct, when the ball is dropped from a low height then the ball does not bounce as good because it has less potential energy so it has less energy to pull its self up again.

Evaluation

When I repeated my results they were a bit in accurate because it was hard to calculate how high the ball went because we had to bend down to see the height the Squash ball reaches.

My results were rather unreliable because it was not calculated very good and as the ball was bounced it got hotter so it would bounce better for the next drop.

I had one anonymous result, which I must have just been read off wrong.

If I were to carry out my experiment out again I would...

First I would get a sensor to see how high the ball will bounce.

Then I could have different balls for each experiment so they would not get hotter and give different results.

And I could make sure the temperature of the room stays the same.

Sukhjit.S.Virdee

0JMA