Warming Up the Ball Before Playing Squash Ball

Warming Up the Ball Before Playing Squash Ball

Hypothesis

Warming up the squash ball helps it bounce higher.

Variables:

Type of Surface

Height of Drop - Independent variable

Temperature of Ball

Material of Ball

Acceleration Due To Gravity

Mass

Angle of Surface

Air Resistance

Diameter of Ball

Height of Bounce - Dependant Variable

Plan

I aim to find out if warming up squash balls before bouncing them

affects the height of its bounce. I will need a squash ball, a meter

ruler, goggles, a Bunsen burner, a heat proof mat, a tripod, a beaker

half full of water, a thermometer, wire gauze and some tissue.

I will set up the apparatus as shown in diagram and then drop the ball

from 100cm and measure how high it bounces. I will do the first test

before heating it so that I have one result at room temperature. I

will then heat the ball to 30°c and drop it again from 100cm and

measure its bounce. Then I will repeat this process for 40 °c, 50°c,

60°c and 70 °c andmeasured the bounce height of the ball. I will

repeat the experiment for each temperature another 4 times to gain an

average. I will have to be careful with the Bunsen burner, so I will

wear goggles. To keep the experiment fair the only thing, which we

changed each time, was the temperature. We used the same ball through

out the experiment and checked the ball was at the same temperature

each time. We dropped it onto the same table from the same height as

well. Some of the results needed to be repeated to make sure that they

were accurate.

I predict that the squash ball will bounce higher as the temperature

gets warmer. This is because as it gets warmer the atoms in the ball

vibrate more. This means that when it hits the ground the atoms push

each other way forcing the ball to bounce higher.