Title
Squash ball investigation
Aim
Our aim is to find out if boiling the squash ball in different high temperatures makes it
bounce longer or not and also to see what is the highest height it can reach when it is
dropped from the drop point.
Hypothesis
I predict that as the temperature increases the ball will jump higher and so will the
number of bounces will increase, because I think the air inside the ball gets pressurized or
maybe the rubber just gets more flexible.
Key Variables
Controlled variable: The controlled variable is the height of the drop point, from where
we dropped the ball.
Independent variable: The independent variable is the temperature of the boiling water,
because each time we changed the temperature by 10˚c.
Dependent: The dependent variable is the number of bounces it makes and the highest
height it reaches when we drop the ball from the drop point, because that is the purpose
of doing this experiment.
Apparatus:










1 beaker
Thermometer
1m ruler
Stand
Heatproof mat
Tripod
Bunsen burner
Match box
Tong
Squash ball
Methods:
 First collect all the apparatus required in order to do the experiment
 Take the 1m ruler and set it up at the side of a table using a stand to measure the
height of the ball it reaches when you drop it
 Fill the beaker with 200ml of water
 Then take the temperature of the normal water you poured into the beaker and
note it
 After that set up the Bunsen burner on the heatproof mat and between the tripod
 Next put the squash ball inside the beaker and also put the beaker on top of the
Bunsen burner
 Now lit the Bunsen burner up and boil the water till it reaches 35 ˚c
 When the temperature reaches to 35 stop the Bunsen burner and take out the
squash ball.
 Take the ball to the place where you’ve set up the ruler to drop the ball and
measure the height it reached and how many bounces it makes
 Drop the ball from 50cm and carefully observe the highest height it reaches after
it takes the first rebound from the ground
 Plus drop it again from the same height and count how many times it bounces
 Then note the number of bounces and the highest height it reaches
 Again repeat the whole experiment but this time wait till the temperature reaches
45˚c
 After finishing the experiment with the current temperature 45˚c, increase the
temperature by 10˚c, for ex: after 45˚c your next stop will be 55˚c, then 65˚c
 Continue carrying out the experiment until you’ve finished the experiment with
105˚c
 Be sure to observe the temperature, the number of bounces it makes, and how
high it reaches carefully.
Diagram:
Results Table:
Mass of ball
(g)
23.8
23.8
23.8
23.8
23.8
23.8
23.8
23.8
Temperature of water
˚c
35
45
55
65
75
85
95
105
Height of drop point
(cm)
# of
bounces
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
Height of rebound
(cm)
3
3
4
5
5
6
7
9
9
14
17
21
25
29
32
35
Mass of water
(g)
256
256
256
256
256
256
256
256
Conclusion:
After analyzing the data I conclude that there is a positive correlation, and I also
conclude that as the air molecules get warmed up they gain kinetic energy hence making
the squash ball bounce more. So if we don’t heat or warm up the ball first it won’t bounce
because the air molecules don’t have enough kinetic energy, which makes them move at
a slow rate.
Evaluation:
While doing this experiment I had two key points, the strong and the weak. Some of my
strengths were that I had a very good group member, which enabled us to cooperate a lot
during the experiment. Before getting on with the experiment we planned out whose
going to do what and take the results, which made us organized and time efficient. Even
though we were organized or had good cooperation, I believe we also had some weakness
during the experiment. Some of the weaknesses were that we might have taken down the
wrong data/results because the ruler could’ve been tilted a bit or while we were checking
the number of bounces it makes maybe we weren’t observing properly which is why we
got wrong data/results. To improve this next time we can use a video camera to video the
bouncing test so later on we can see in slow motion and we would get accurate results,
and for the ruler to be straight we can use cello tape.
Further work:
For further work we can continue out the experiment till we reached 165˚c, increased
the height of the drop point and see if that made any difference, or boil it in more amount
of water.