Pg. 1: Experimental Question
Variables
Hypothesis
Pg. 2: Background Research
Pg. 3: Materials List
Procedures
Pg. 4 Data, Results
Pg. 5 Conclusions
Pg.6 Acknowledgement
Pg. 7 Bibliography

Experimental Question:
How does the type of ball affect how high the ball bounces?
IV: Type of Ball
DV: How high the ball bounces
Constant: surface
Hypothesis:
I predict that if the type of ball is hard, then the ball will bounce higher because balls made of harder materials are able to store more energy and can transfer the energy as a high bounce.

There are many types of balls – bouncy balls, basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, golf balls, etc.
Early tennis balls were made from wool wrapped in sheep or goat stomachs and held together with rope.
Modern tennis balls are made from a mixture of rubber and chemicals covered with yellow felt.
The felt is thicker for greater wind resistance and gives players more racket head control when striking the ball.
Tennis balls are also made with less pressurized air, making them stiffer and don't bounce as high as modern pressurized balls.
All balls bounce differently and bounce with different heights.
Potential energy is stored energy. Energy is the ability to cause change. The more potential energy a ball has, the higher it can bounce.
Etc.…….


Golf ball

Bouncy ball

Tennis ball

Meter stick
1) Hold the tennis ball at the top of the meter stick
2)
Release, don’t throw the tennis ball
3) Measure and record how high the tennis ball bounces
4) Repeat steps 1-3 two more times on the same surface
5) Repeat the experimental procedure using a Bouncy ball
6) Repeat the experimental procedure using a Golf ball

Pg. 4
Type of Ball Trial 1
Tennis ball 24inches
Bouncy ball 31inches
Golf ball 28inches
Trial 2
26inches
30inches
30inches
Trial 3
25inches
33inches
29inches
Average Bounce
Height
25inches
31inches
29inches
Average Bounce Height VS. Type of Ball
25
20
15
10
35
30
5
0
Tennis ball Bouncy ball Golf ball
Type of Ball
After performing the experiment, I saw that the bounce heights of the golf ball, tennis ball, and bouncy ball were 29 inches, 25 inches, 31 inches, respectively. The highest bounce was the bouncy. The lowest bounce was the Tennis ball. All the balls were bounced on a cement surface.
Every time the ball bounced, it did not bounce straight up, it had a little spin.

My hypothesis stated that if the type of ball was harder, then the bounce height would be higher.
Based on the data, my hypothesis was not supported. As the type of ball got harder, the bounce height got taller then shorter. The tennis ball was the softest and bounced the shortest, 25 inches.
The Bouncy ball bounced the highest of all three, 31 inches. This is because the bouncy ball is hard, but squishy which allows it to have a lot of potential energy and bounce higher than the other balls.
If I were to do this experiment again, I would use a different variety of balls. I would also make sure that all the balls I used were relatively the same size. The tennis ball was much bigger than the bouncy ball and golf ball which was not a very controlled experiment. I would also try this experiment on a variety of bounce surfaces to see if there was a difference between the bounce heights. It would be interesting to see if a tennis ball ever bounced higher than a bouncy ball.