Acoustic measurements of bouncing balls and the determination of gravitational acceleration

• Autores: Oliver Schwarz, Patrik Vogt, Jochen Kuhn
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 51, Nº. 5, 2013, pág. 312
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Interesting experiments can be performed and fundamental physical relationships can be explored with so-called Super Balls or bouncy balls. An example is the determination of gravity g in an experiment. The basic idea behind this was described by Pape1 and Sprockhoff2: The initial and final heights and the complete duration of all the bounces are measured for a certain number of bounces by the ball. On the basis of this data, the acceleration of gravity can be approximately calculated if air drag on the ball is neglected. However, in practice, it becomes clear that measuring the height of the last bounce in the process is problematic. The person performing the experiment either has to make a good estimation of its height or film the bounce in front of a measuring stick. The method is based on the important assumption that each of the individual bounces of the ball loses the same percentage of mechanical energy; the coefficient of restitution k therefore remains the same.