Name : Adam Okoe Mould

Title : Bouncing Ball

Criteria : Dn, DCP, CE

Research Question : What is the relationship between the height at which a tennis ball is
dropped and its maximum rebound height?

Hypothesis : For small heights, the drop height will be proportional to the bounce
height because when the drop height is reduced, the ball hits the ground
with less force and therefore the rebounded force will be less and the ball
would rebound to a lower rebound height.

Apparatus

• Tape Measure
• Tennis Ball
• Ruler
• Flat Horizontal Surface
• Vertical Section of Wall

Variables

Independent Variable

• Drop Height – The initial height the tennis ball drops

Dependant Variables

• Rebound height – Maximum height of first bounce

Controlled Variables

• Surface on which the ball bounces – This is because different balls have
different degrees of hardness and therefore different hardness of floors will cause
different absorption of energy when the ball hits the ground causing varying
rebound heights for the same drop height.
• Tennis Ball – The same tennis ball would be used because the mass will affect the
acceleration of the ball and also different balls absorb energy to different extents
on impact.
Procedure

1. Cellotape a tape measure against a vertical wall with measurements ranging from
0 cm to 200cm.
2. Let one experimenter hold the tennis ball with the fingers and place the top of the
ball in line with the 200cm mark of the tape measure.
3. The second experimenter should be positioned near to the floor.
4. The first experimenter should drop the ball from the 200cm mark whiles the other
experimenter observes the height of the bounce (this is a trial drop since the
second experimenter needs to know the approximate height of the bounce since he
has to be level with the measuring scale to avoid parallax error.)
5. This observed height should be marked with a ruler by the second experimenter.
6. To ensure accuracy, the same drop is repeated before the rebound height is
recorded.
7. Repeat these steps twice for drop height increasing and drop height reducing for
about 10 different drop heights.
8. Find the average for the rebound heights

Precautions

1. Ensure that the surface of the floor is horizontal because on trial runs it was
observed that when the ball landed on a slanted surface the ball rebound with a
horizontal and upward motion instead of a perpendicular upward motion.

Raw Data
Rebound Height /cm ± 0.05cm
Drop height
/cm± 0.05cm Drop Height Drop Height
Increasing Reducing
200.00 108.00 107.00
192.00 103.50 104.00
180.00 99.00 100.00
160.00 87.00 87.00
153.00 84.00 84.50
140.00 76.00 75.50
120.00 68.00 69.00
112.00 59.00 56.00
81.00 46.00 45.00
76.00 43.50 44.50

Observations
As the drop height reduced, the rebound height also reduced. Also the loudness of the
sound heard when the ball hit the ground reduced as the drop height reduced.
 Processed Data
Rebound Height / m ± 0.0005m Average
Rebound
Drop Height Run 1 , Run 2, Height
/ m ± 0.0005m Drop Height Drop Height /m
Increasing Reducing ± 0.0005m
2.0000 1.0800 1.0700 1.0750
1.9200 1.0350 1.0400 1.0375
1.8000 0.9900 1.0000 0.9950
1.6000 0.8700 0.8700 0.8700
1.5300 0.8400 0.8450 0.8425
1.4000 0.7600 0.7550 0.7575
1.2000 0.6800 0.6900 0.6850
1.1200 0.5900 0.5600 0.5750
0.8100 0.4600 0.4500 0.4550
0.7600 0.4350 0.4450 0.4400

Calculations

Drop Height in meters = Dropt Height in cm × 100

∆ Drop Height in meters = ∆Dropt Height in cm × 100
= 0.05cm × 100
= ± 0.0005 m
Rebound Height in meters = Rebound Height in cm × 100
= 0.05cm × 100
= ± 0.0005 m
Average Rebound Height = (Rebound Height run 1 + Rebound Height run 2) ÷ 2
∆Average Rebound Height = (∆Rebound Height run 1 + ∆Rebound Height run 2) ÷ 2
= (0.0005 + 0.0005) ÷ 2
= ± 0.0005m
 Graph of Rebound Height against Drop Height

y
2

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

0.8

0.6

0.4
rs
ight/m
eboundH
R

0.2
x
-0.05 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1 1.05 1.1
Drop Height / meters
Comments on Graph
• There were enough data points plotted since it was able to eliminate enough
random errors like the first and third coordinates.
• The coordinates were fairly precise as they were scattered above and below the
line of best fit
• The uncertainty bars are negligible as they can not be seen from the graph
• The intercept was a negligible difference of 0.002 units from the origin.
• The graph of rebound height against drop height shows that the rebound height is
directly proportional to the drop height because the line of best fit was a straight
line passing through the origin.
Conclusion

The drop height of a tennis ball is directly proportional to its rebound height as the line of
best fit was a straight line passing through the origin for the graph of rebound height
against drop height. As many drop heights were taken, the experiment was successful
despite a few random errors.

Sources of Error

1. Due to the limitation of the human eye, it was difficult to observe the measured
mark of the rebound height as it remained at its rebound height only momentarily.
2. It was noticed that most of the random errors occurred when the drop height was
low. This may have been because the experimenter could not bend low enough to
be level with the ball. Hence, parallax error may have caused these random errors.

Improvements to the investigation

1. A camera with a high number of megapixels with the appropriate software can be
used to accurately determine the rebound height.
2. To reduce random errors caused by parallax error, use drop heights above 120 cm
so that the experimenter would not have any difficulty in bending low to be level
with the tennis ball