Why Doesn't a Dropped Ball Bounce Back to Its Original Height?

  • Thread starter Thread starter B Cass
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Concept Energy
AI Thread Summary
When a ball is dropped from a height, it does not bounce back to its original height due to energy loss during the collision with the ground. Some kinetic energy is converted into heat as the ball deforms upon impact, indicating an inelastic collision. If the collision were perfectly elastic, the ball would return to its original height without any energy loss. The change in shape during the impact is a key factor in this energy transformation. Thus, the ball's inability to reach the original height is a result of the energy lost to deformation and heat.
B Cass
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
"When a ball is dropped to the floor from a height h, it strikes the ground and briefly undergoes a change of shape before rebounding to a max ht. less than h. Explain why it does not return to the same height h."

Is this because some of the kinetic energy is transferred to heat?? What does the shape change have to do with it? I know I'm making this more complex than it has to be! TIA!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Yes, an amount of kinetic energy is transformed into heat caused by the deformation of the ball during the collision.
 
If the collision was perfectly elastic, it would bounce back to the same height, but KE is lost as you said. That "change of shape" line should get you thinking inelastic. Perfectly elastic means that it was at its original shape before and after the collision with no deforming whatsoever
 

Thread 'Errors and significant figures'

I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
View full post »
Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'

Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'

Let's declare that for the cylinder, mass = M = 10 kg Radius = R = 4 m For the wall and the floor, Friction coeff = ##\mu## = 0.5 For the hanging mass, mass = m = 11 kg First, we divide the force according to their respective plane (x and y thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and according to which, cylinder or the hanging mass, they're working on. Force on the hanging mass $$mg - T = ma$$ Force(Cylinder) on y $$N_f + f_w - Mg = 0$$ Force(Cylinder) on x $$T + f_f - N_w = Ma$$ There's also...
View full post »

Similar threads

Impulse applied to a bouncing ball
Replies
13
Views
8K
A ball climbing a ramp while "rolling the wrong way"
Replies
32
Views
3K
B Why do objects bounce?
Replies
6
Views
1K
Accounting for Air Resistance in Conservation of Energy Lab with Bouncing Ball
Replies
13
Views
3K
Collisions Impulse; Balls dropped from same height.
Replies
2
Views
3K
Ball dropped out a truck window, find bounce height and dist
Replies
4
Views
2K
What Determines the Decreasing Height of a Bouncing Ball?
Replies
9
Views
3K
Finding the Ratio and Height of a Double Ball Drop Collision
Replies
2
Views
2K
Catapult spring, Kinetic and Potential energy
Replies
10
Views
3K
Maximum Height of Ball on U-Shaped Ramp
Replies
17
Views
2K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top