Experiment Report: How Drop Height Affects Bounce Height
Introduction
- Purpose of the Experiment: The aim of this lab was to find out how the height from which a ball is dropped affects how high it bounces back up. We wanted to see if higher drops make for higher bounces.
Hypothesis
- Proposed Relationship: I hypothesize that as the drop height increases, the bounce height will also increase. I think that the ball will bounce higher when it is dropped from a greater height.
Materials
- Different types of balls (tennis ball, basketball)
- Measuring tape or ruler
- Stopwatch (if necessary for timing the bounces)
- Notebook for recording data
Procedure
- Gather all materials needed for the experiment.
- Use the measuring tape to measure a drop height (starting at 20 cm).
- Drop the ball from the measured height.
- Observe and record the highest point the ball reaches after bouncing in the notebook.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for every drop height: 20 cm, 40 cm, 60 cm, 80 cm, and 100 cm.
- Make sure to use the same type of ball for all drops to keep it fair.
- Record the bounce heights for each drop to collect enough data.
Data and Observations
- Data Table: Here is the table with drop heights and bounce heights:
| Drop Height (cm) | Bounce Height (cm) | |------------------|--------------------| | 20 | [Value] | | 40 | [Value] | | 60 | [Value] | | 80 | [Value] | | 100 | [Value] |
(Note: Replace [Value] with the actual bounce heights you recorded during the experiment.)
- Graph: I will make a scatter plot with drop height on the x-axis and bounce height on the y-axis. The x-axis will be labeled "Drop Height (cm)" and the y-axis will be labeled "Bounce Height (cm)". The title will be "Bounce Height vs. Drop Height".
Analysis
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Observations: During the experiment, I noticed that the bounce height generally increased as the drop height increased. There were some times when the ball did not bounce back as high as I expected, which might have been due to uneven surfaces or how I dropped the ball.
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Calculate Average Bounce Height: If I had done multiple trials at each height, I would calculate the average bounce height by adding the bounce heights together and dividing by the number of trials.
Conclusion
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Restate Hypothesis & Findings: My hypothesis was that the higher the ball is dropped, the higher it will bounce back up. The results mostly supported my hypothesis because I saw that as I increased the drop height, the bounce height usually got higher too.
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Implications of Findings: These findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between drop height and bounce height. This means that if you want a ball to bounce higher, you should drop it from a greater height.
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Suggestions for Future Research: If I were to repeat the experiment, I would try dropping different types of balls from the same height to see how their materials affect the bounce. I could also test the same balls on different surfaces to see if that changes the bounce height.
References
- I used various websites and classroom notes about physics and how gravity works for background information to help with my experiment.