Why does rubber bounce

Knowing this, you might be able to predict what the polymers are like in, say, a basketball, a ping pong ball, or a racquetball. But what about a steel ball? It has different polymers than a rubber ball. Believe it or not, a steel ball actually bounces higher than a rubber ball.

When it hits the ground, the steel snaps back faster. The steel is better at storing energy, which helps give it a lot of bounce power.

You can investigate bounciness with an activity at home. Here are some instructions to make your very own bouncy ball. How high will your bouncy ball go? What happens if you warm it up? The widely varying results of your experiments suggest that the reasons depend on a ball's materials and construction. Footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, and tennis balls take advantage of the springiness of trapped air.

When you drop a ball, gravity pulls it toward the floor. The ball gains energy of motion, known as kinetic energy. When the ball hits the floor and stops, that energy has to go somewhere.

The energy goes into deforming the ball--from its original round shape to a squashed shape. When the ball deforms, its molecules are stretched apart in some places and squeezed together in others.

As they are pushed about, the molecules in the ball collide with and rub across each other. Exactly what happens to these molecules as they stretch and squeeze depends on what the ball is made of. Suppose you drop a ball of putty. Rather than bouncing, it hits the floor and flattens. Geethamma, V. Why does a rubber ball bounce?. Reson 2, 48—54 Download citation.

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