Basket Ball and Tennis Ball
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| Commercial toy and the standard demonstration | The ball has just bounced |
| Abstract |
Tennis ball on top of basketball dropped on a hard floor. The tennis ball recoils to a greater height than it was dropped from.
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| Portable | Yes | ||
| Principles Illustrated |
Conservation of momentum and energy in collisions.
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| NCEA & Science Curriculum |
PHYS 2.4
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| Teacher Guide |
Would you like to contribute lesson suggestions? Contact us. |
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| Video |
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| Instructions |
Drop the tennis ball on top of the basketball. The tennis ball will fly upward much further than its original height.
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| Safety |
The tennis ball is moving at up to nearly three times its original speed and can come off the basketball in a range of directions. Practice first and make sure no one is standing very near as the tennis ball can hit pretty hard. A simple analysis is available in the PowerPoint below. We also have a commercial version available as shown at left in the picture above. This one uses a series of three balls to give a fourth ball quite a kick. Larger picture. |
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| References |
PIRA 1N30.60
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| PowerPoint |
PowerPoint for use with this demo.
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| Credits |
This teaching resource was developed with support from |
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| Copyright |