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A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 10:51 am
My son ask me this question today, and I was about to respond when I realized I don't actually know the answer.
Now, based on my understanding; if a ball hits another object with enough force and acceleration; and the other object is resistant enough, the ball will bounce. However, is there any instance where a ball will never bounce?
I know this may be a stupid question, but it got me thinking how we uneducate folks often assume something to be true, without even a basic understanding of how that something actually works.
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 10:53 am
(May 13, 2012 at 10:51 am)gringoperry Wrote: My son ask me this question today, and I was about to respond when I realized I don't actually know the answer.
Now, based on my understanding; if a ball hits another object with enough force and acceleration; and the other object is resistant enough, the ball will bounce. However, is there any instance where a ball will never bounce?
I know this may be a stupid question, but it got me thinking how we uneducate folks often assume something to be true, without even a basic understanding of how that something actually works.
There are lots of different types of balls ranging from ping pong to bearings. Which did you have in mind?
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 11:01 am
See, that's what got me to thinking in the first place. I know a rubber ball and a ping pong ball can bounce. Then I was thinking, a steel ball will bounce too, if dropped from a great enough height, as long as it doesn't shatter the surface it impacts. So then I was thinking, what about something with an extremely dense mass. Is there any ball shaped objects in the universe, which are so heavy that they would never bounce. Furthermore, are there any ball shaped objects, with properties that I am not aware of, which would make it impossible for them to bounce. Basically, my understanding is completely based on force, acceleration and resistance. There may not be any other factors involved, and maybe this really is just a dumb question, but I'm curious none the less.
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 11:49 am
I think it would depend on the surface they were striking. I,m sure you could bounce a cannon ball on a suitably strong trampoline.
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 11:55 am
(May 13, 2012 at 11:49 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: I think it would depend on the surface they were striking. I,m sure you could bounce a cannon ball on a suitably strong trampoline.
If a ball was made of some soft squishy substance, all the kinetic energy would be absorbed in deforming the ball and none would be left to allow it to bounce. (but I suppose if thou threw it hard enough... then maybe!)
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Quote:So then I was thinking, what about something with an extremely dense mass.
You mean like the head of the average fundie? Sounds like a good experiment.
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 12:07 pm
I think the answer is yes, but that is the short answer. I believe that every ball could bounce under the right circumstances. You just have to find the right circumstances.
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 12:11 pm
It has to do with the force applied and the elasticity of the material the ball is made of and the object it is striking. I don't think that there are any known perfectly inelastic material. So I would say that the answer is yes any ball can theoretically bounce.
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Everything can bounce to some degree ( even if it is undetectable with our eyesight ) because no collisions in the real world are completely inelastic.
There is a sliding scale of elasticity of collisions, from 0 to 1. This is called the co-efficient of restitution, e. If e=0 then the collision is completely inelastic and the 2 colliding bodies coalesce. In the case of something hitting the floor, the floor is not moving so if e=0, the object would stop and not bounce ( or the highly unlikely opposite, the floor rises up with the object ).
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RE: A question my son asked: Can every ball bounce?
May 13, 2012 at 12:22 pm
(This post was last modified: May 13, 2012 at 12:23 pm by FallentoReason.)
(May 13, 2012 at 10:51 am)gringoperry Wrote: My son ask me this question today, and I was about to respond when I realized I don't actually know the answer.
Now, based on my understanding; if a ball hits another object with enough force and acceleration; and the other object is resistant enough, the ball will bounce. However, is there any instance where a ball will never bounce?
I know this may be a stupid question, but it got me thinking how we uneducate folks often assume something to be true, without even a basic understanding of how that something actually works.
I studied this in physics last year but forgot the name of the property. Pretty much all objects have a property that determines how elastic a collision is. A rubber ball's value might be close to 1 meaning that the collision is close to elastic against e.g. a wall. Another object like a ball made of plasticine might have a value of .1 or not even which means the collision is not elastic at all therefore a huge amount of kinetic energy gets lost i.e. it hardly bounces back.
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