How Does Elastic Potential Energy Develop
When a ball is dropped/ thrown to the ground, gravity forces the ball to move downwards, whilst the ball falls down, the Gravitational Potential Energy (GPE) that the ball has transforms into Kinetic energy. As the ball hits the ground with maximum Kinetic energy, the forces in play flatten and deform the frame/shape of the ball by compressing and dispersing the molecules that essentially make up the ball. As stated in the law of conservation energy, energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it transforms from one form to another. Therefore, after the ball hits the ground it recovers it shape due to the face that it is round and either filled or inflated. The energy involved in the process of compressing the ball (Elastic Potential Energy) causes the ball to bounce back up.
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Not only does the ball being dropped change in shape, so does the surface it bounces on.
Soft surfaces like the laptop case deformed as soon as the ball hit against it causing the ball to use less Elastic Potential Energy therefore reducing the bounce height whereas harder surfaces such as the classroom table and the classroom floor did not deform and resulted in the ball using more Elastic Potential Energy. Changing heights also altered the bounce rates, the higher the ball was to start off, the higher it bounced and did more total bounces. This is because the higher an object is, the higher it’s GPE and as the ball is dropped, gravity forces it downward and the velocity increases as the GPE transforms into Kinetic energy and when it impacts the floor, it bounces higher than an object with less
GPE.
There were three major sources of error in this particular practical, the first being that fact that alongside Kinetic Energy, Velocity also played a role in the bounce height. Considering that a ball was not perfectly sphere and the ground is not perfectly flat, when the ball bounced velocity altered the way it launched back into the air. The ball did not bounce in a perfectly vertical motion therefore the ball didn’t have a straight bounce, this may have decreased the bounce height because a ball travelling at an angle would have a lower bounce height.
Another flaw in this practical was that there was no adequate way of measuring the bounce height or the number of bounces. This is because both bounce height and number of bounces was dependant on the human eye, since the human eye is not perfect there was clearly no way that the results could be perfect. When counting number of bounces, sound also indicated the number of bounces but just like the human eye, the human capacity to hear is not very accurate especially when the ball is bouncing multiple times at once.
The third source of error was in the object used to measure the height itself, the 1 meter ruler. All groups in the class used a ruler to measure the drop height and bounce height of the ball but the ruler did not start at exactly 0 centimetres. The ruler has a slight gap before the units of measurement started (cm and mm) therefore when measuring both drop height and bounce height, the total amount was slightly higher than the actual height.
Considering that the sources of error were very minimal and could not be fixed easily, there are a few ways that the practical could be improved however this may not be possible in a school laboratory. One method of minimalizing any form of movement besides vertical could be by using perfectly sphere balls and bounce them on an extremely flat surface with no air movement. There are two ways to make the measurements precise, one method is by using slow motion cameras to record the number of bounces and bounce height. The other method is by using laser sensors to get the precise bounce height. Instead of using inaccurate measurements, it would be more accurate to take away the length of the gap from the ball’s bounce height.
Conclusion
From the practical, it was discovered that a ball with more Elastic Potential Energy bouncing on a harder surface from a higher height bounced higher than the balls without these attributes. The laptop case for example did not allow the balls to bounce as high as the table or classroom floor and the balls falling from a higher point bounced much higher than the ones falling from a lower height. All the results recorded and scientific evidence support the hypothesis.
Bounce rate plays a very important role in everyday life, the main being in sport. For instance, if someone was to play tennis, using a cricket ball or golf ball would be inadequate for the reasons proved in this practical. The bounce rate, determines the Elastic Potential Energy of a ball and the hardness of the surface the sport is being played on that is why ball sports are played with various types of balls and each sport has a different form of using that ball.
Not only does the ball being dropped change in shape, so does the surface it bounces on.
Soft surfaces like the laptop case deformed as soon as the ball hit against it causing the ball to use less Elastic Potential Energy therefore reducing the bounce height whereas harder surfaces such as the classroom table and the classroom floor did not deform and resulted in the ball using more Elastic Potential Energy. Changing heights also altered the bounce rates, the higher the ball was to start off, the higher it bounced and did more total bounces. This is because the higher an object is, the higher it’s GPE and as the ball is dropped, gravity forces it downward and the velocity increases as the GPE transforms into Kinetic energy and when it impacts the floor, it bounces higher than an object with less
GPE.
There were three major sources of error in this particular practical, the first being that fact that alongside Kinetic Energy, Velocity also played a role in the bounce height. Considering that a ball was not perfectly sphere and the ground is not perfectly flat, when the ball bounced velocity altered the way it launched back into the air. The ball did not bounce in a perfectly vertical motion therefore the ball didn’t have a straight bounce, this may have decreased the bounce height because a ball travelling at an angle would have a lower bounce height.
Another flaw in this practical was that there was no adequate way of measuring the bounce height or the number of bounces. This is because both bounce height and number of bounces was dependant on the human eye, since the human eye is not perfect there was clearly no way that the results could be perfect. When counting number of bounces, sound also indicated the number of bounces but just like the human eye, the human capacity to hear is not very accurate especially when the ball is bouncing multiple times at once.
The third source of error was in the object used to measure the height itself, the 1 meter ruler. All groups in the class used a ruler to measure the drop height and bounce height of the ball but the ruler did not start at exactly 0 centimetres. The ruler has a slight gap before the units of measurement started (cm and mm) therefore when measuring both drop height and bounce height, the total amount was slightly higher than the actual height.
Considering that the sources of error were very minimal and could not be fixed easily, there are a few ways that the practical could be improved however this may not be possible in a school laboratory. One method of minimalizing any form of movement besides vertical could be by using perfectly sphere balls and bounce them on an extremely flat surface with no air movement. There are two ways to make the measurements precise, one method is by using slow motion cameras to record the number of bounces and bounce height. The other method is by using laser sensors to get the precise bounce height. Instead of using inaccurate measurements, it would be more accurate to take away the length of the gap from the ball’s bounce height.
Conclusion
From the practical, it was discovered that a ball with more Elastic Potential Energy bouncing on a harder surface from a higher height bounced higher than the balls without these attributes. The laptop case for example did not allow the balls to bounce as high as the table or classroom floor and the balls falling from a higher point bounced much higher than the ones falling from a lower height. All the results recorded and scientific evidence support the hypothesis.
Bounce rate plays a very important role in everyday life, the main being in sport. For instance, if someone was to play tennis, using a cricket ball or golf ball would be inadequate for the reasons proved in this practical. The bounce rate, determines the Elastic Potential Energy of a ball and the hardness of the surface the sport is being played on that is why ball sports are played with various types of balls and each sport has a different form of using that ball.