TENNIS BALL BOUNCE EXPERIMENT CHALLENGE Find the relationship

TENNIS BALL BOUNCE EXPERIMENT

CHALLENGE Find the relationship between the height from which a tennis ball is dropped and the height of its resulting bounce.

1. STATE THE PROBLEM How would you state this challenge in the form of a question? Does the height from which a tennis ball is dropped affect how high it will bounce?

2. GATHER INFORMATION What do you know about… § the material in tennis balls? they are made of inflated rubber a stretchy substance and they are covered in felt a soft material

2. GATHER INFORMATION What do you know about… § gravity? it’s a force that pulls everything on Earth toward Earth’s center “What goes up, must come down!”

2. GATHER INFORMATION What do you know about… § Newton’s First Law of Motion? says the motion of the tennis ball will not change unless a force is exerted on it causing the tennis ball to speed up, slow down, or change direction

3. FORM A HYPOTHESIS Based on the information gathered, what would your hypothesis be? IF the height from which a tennis ball is dropped is increased, THEN the height the tennis ball bounces back up will also increase.

4. TEST THE HYPOTHESIS WITH AN EXPERIMENT At this time, your teacher will give instructions on how you are going to conduct your experiment. Materials needed to conduct the experiment: 1. “Tennis Ball Bounce” sheets 2. Pencil 3. Tennis ball 4. Measuring device

PROCEDURE 1. 2. 3. 4. drop a tennis ball from the various heights of 24, 36, 48, & 60 inches observe & measure how high the tennis ball bounces back up after hitting the ground using the measuring device record your findings in your table repeat each drop for the various heights 3 times

IMPORTANT Do not forget to record all of your data.

Well…What are you waitin’ for? LET’S GET TO EXPERIMENTIN’

What Were Your Findings? Now that your experiment has been conducted, let’s take a look at an example of what your table may look like.

Your table may look something like this: Bounce Height of Tennis Ball (in) Drop in Height of Tennis Ball (in) Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average 24 14 14 15 14 36 22 21 22 22 48 27 27 28 27 60 32 33 34 33

Can you answer this question? What is the independent (manipulated) variable in this experiment? It is… the height from which the tennis ball is dropped.

Can you answer this question? What is the dependent (responding) variable in this experiment? It is… the height the tennis ball bounces back up after hitting the ground.

Can you answer this question? What are the controlled (constant) variables in this experiment? They are… • the measuring device and the units used • the type of ball • the ground

5. ANALYZE YOUR DATA Your graph may look something like this…

6. DRAW CONCLUSIONS What can you conclude from the results of your experiment? The hypothesis was correct!! The greater the height from which a tennis ball is dropped, the higher it will bounce!