Bouncing Ball Experiment

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Bouncing Ball Experiment A squash ball is a hollow ball made of rubber, with air inside. Before starting a game of squash, most players will "warm up" the ball by knocking it around the court. This raises the temperature of the ball and increases the "bounciness". In this experiment you can investigate the effect of temperature on the height to which a ball bounces. An alternative experiment is to investigate how the height of each successive bounce changes. Planning your experiment The height to which the ball bounces will depend on the initial height and the temperature, so you must decide which of the variables you are going to investigate and how you can ensure that your experiment is a "fair test". You must then decide the range over which you are going to make measurements and how many measurements you should make. e.g. if you were varying the temperature of the ball, what would be suitable value for the maximum temperature? Should you make measurements every degree, every 5 degrees, every 10 degrees, etc. How could you change the temperature of the ball and measure the temperature? Should the heights be measured from the top, bottom or middle of the ball? In a real experiment, it is obviously not possible to stop the ball at the top of its bounce - so how could you measure the height of the bounce? In an actual experiment, what precautions could you take to ensure that the results were as accurate as possible? Making a prediction =================== Try to predict what your results will show. E.g. if you were planning to change the temperature of the ball, would you expect the bounce height to increase or decrease as the temperature is increased? Can you think of a scientific reason for your prediction? Fair tests ========== In any experiment there are usually several factors or variables that you could change. For example, suppose you were asked to investigate what affects the rate at which a container of hot water cools down.

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