What type of ball can bounce and travel the most?

AI Thread Summary
Dimples on golf balls enhance their aerodynamic properties rather than their bounce. The coefficient of restitution (COR) is crucial for determining how high a ball will bounce, which depends on both the ball's material and the surface it hits. A steel ball on a concrete floor can achieve a high COR, resulting in minimal energy loss during bounces. The discussion also highlights that softer balls may perform better on non-elastic surfaces due to their ability to deform. Understanding these principles can help identify the most efficient ball for bouncing and traveling long distances.
confer
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
From what I have investigated, I know that dimples do a large part of the process of going far, and elasticity for sure is something of the main bounce thing, but things that confuse me like if the ball is empty affects both characteristics, or if the same dimples affect the bounce of the ball in a bad way. So I was thinking of asking here to find out if someone could solve my doubts
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Welcome to PhysicsForums. :smile:

Golf balls do not have dimples to bounce better. The dimples are there to give the balls some enhanced aerodynamic characteristics that are helpful for the golf ball's flight:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-dimples-in-golf-ba/

Depending on the velocity regime of the ball, it may be best to be smooth or slightly rough or have the dimples.

As for bounciness, you want a high coefficient of restitution (COR), which depends on the ball's material and the material it is bouncing off of. A steel ball bearing bouncing off of a solid steel floor will have a CoR close to 1.0 (very little energy is lost to heat on each bounce, and it bounces up almost to the same height each time).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_restitution

Do you have any particular floor material and ball velocity profile in mind?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes vanhees71 and confer
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it in advance and now the doubts that you have solved for me

Floor would be simple concrete, like a normal office building floor or something like that, since from what I have read it is the best for bouncing balls, and the speed of the ball would say enough to keep in the air for a certain time, something like at least one minute. I guess what I wanted to solve with my question is "what would happen if you applied a certain force to a type of ball that can bounce off walls indefinitely or for a long time"
I would suppose such ball would be the most "efficient" ball of all, so it would be the ball that can bounce and travel the most.
I expected that when a ball is applied with force, the speed is what will make it last in the air, and the bouncy is the characteristic that makes it bounce off the floor and walls.
but I am very unsure if I am asking the right questions or if I am on the right track to resolve this question that I have, It is the first time that I see these concepts of areodynamics and until yesterday I did not know that the reason why golf balls had dimples was to make them travel better. I hope you can help me with this!
 
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Ball

The CoR always depends on both objects colliding. A very hard steel ball can achieve very high CoR, but only if the floor is also very hard. On softer non-elastic floors a more deformable rubber ball will have a higher CoR than a steel ball.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes vanhees71 and berkeman
berkeman said:
Yeah, those are fun! :smile:

Yeah, my Brother just couldn't stop laughing. . . . :DD
Wikipedia and Myself said:
thrown down onto a hard surface by an average adult
my Brother, from a second story window, it can fly over a three-story building back up and hit you on the chin.

Lol. . . true story, honest, I witnessed the unpleasant occurrence. . . . :oops:

.
 
Last edited:
The rope is tied into the person (the load of 200 pounds) and the rope goes up from the person to a fixed pulley and back down to his hands. He hauls the rope to suspend himself in the air. What is the mechanical advantage of the system? The person will indeed only have to lift half of his body weight (roughly 100 pounds) because he now lessened the load by that same amount. This APPEARS to be a 2:1 because he can hold himself with half the force, but my question is: is that mechanical...
Let there be a person in a not yet optimally designed sled at h meters in height. Let this sled free fall but user can steer by tilting their body weight in the sled or by optimal sled shape design point it in some horizontal direction where it is wanted to go - in any horizontal direction but once picked fixed. How to calculate horizontal distance d achievable as function of height h. Thus what is f(h) = d. Put another way, imagine a helicopter rises to a height h, but then shuts off all...
Some physics textbook writer told me that Newton's first law applies only on bodies that feel no interactions at all. He said that if a body is on rest or moves in constant velocity, there is no external force acting on it. But I have heard another form of the law that says the net force acting on a body must be zero. This means there is interactions involved after all. So which one is correct?
Back
Top