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For my project I have to answer the following question "Why does a ball bounce much higher than the height it was dropped when it is simultaneously dropped on top of a larger, more massive, ball?". The project involves 2 or more balls to collide and see how and why the smaller ball dropped from shoulder height bounces higher than the starting point when it smashes into another larger ball vertically. This phenomenon occurs because of physics principles such as energy, momentum, and elastic collision.
These such physics principles can be described in the following equation: v1 + v2=v1' + v2'. In the equation, the Vs equal to velocity and the apostrophes equal the new velocity change. Another equation like M(Vi-Vf)=m(vf-vi) can be used to describe the collision of the two balls. The uppercase M represents the bigger object and the lowercase m describes the smaller object .
This can also be described in the following example:
he two slightly separated balls dropped from the same height are seen by a ground observer to approach the surface with velocity v.
A ground observer sees the larger ball hit and bounce up with velocity v while the smaller one still approaches. An observer on the larger ball would see the smaller one approach with velocity 2v. That observer would see the surface receding with velocity v.
Assuming perfectly elastic collisions and that the large ball is much more massive than the small one, the observer on the large ball will see the small one bounce back with velocity 2v. A ground observer would see the velocity of the small ball as 3v.
Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/doubal.html
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