Temperature and Squash Balls Experiment

Temperature and Squash Balls Experiment

Introduction

I am going to do an experiment on how high a squash ball bounces at

different temperatures from the same height.

Theory

When a squash ball hits the wall the air molecules inside the ball

heat up and make the ball warm. When they move faster they hit the

rubber wall harder therefore makes the ball hotter. The reason why the

ball moves faster is that when the ball hits the wall it causes

friction and the molecules move faster an hit the wall harder

therefore hotter molecules move faster and cold molecules move slower.

When the ball is cold there is low internal pressure and when the ball

is hot there is high internal pressure which makes the ball bounce

better, it also makes it bigger. More energy is absorbed when the ball

is hot; the ball also expands when it gets hotter. A ball bounces

better if it is inflated because there are more molecules, so the ball

has more spring energy, when it bounces the energy is absorbed into

the ball to spring it back up. If the ball bounces on a hard surface

the energy is absorbed into the ball and if the ball bounces on a soft

surface the energy is absorbed into the surface. If a ball is used to

often it will pop because it can only expand and contract so many

times.

Prediction

I predict that by heating up the squash ball it will bounce higher

because hot balls have high internal pressure.

Preliminary work

I found that the method I used was not very accurate because it kept

on going higher or lower than the temperature I needed so I decided to

use a water bath. I also needed another pair of hands to hold the ball

under the water so that it was the same temperature all the way around

the ball.

Precise

To make my experiment precise I am going to measure the height of the