Does The Temperature Of A Tennis Ball Affect The Bounce?

A tennis ball’s bounce is determined by its construction and material makeup. The temperature of a tennis ball can affect its bounce.

Introduction

A tennis ball’s bounce is determined by the amount of energy that is imparted to it upon collision with the ground. The coefficient of restitution (COR) is a measure of how much energy is “lost” in the collision and is therefore directly related to the ball’s bounce. The COR is affected by a number of factors, one of which is temperature. In general, a warmer tennis ball will have a higher COR than a cooler one.

There are two main ways in which temperature can affect a tennis ball’s COR. The first is through the material composition of the ball itself. A ball that is made of rubber or other elastic materials will become more elastic (and therefore have a higher COR) when it warmed up. The second way that temperature can affect the COR is through the air pressure inside the ball. As air temperatures increase, so does the air pressure inside the ball. This increase in pressure makes the ball more resistant to being squished, and therefore makes it bouncier.

While both of these mechanisms can cause an increase in COR with increasing temperature, it is important to note that there are limits to how much bounce you can get out of a tennis ball. For instance, if you were to heat a tennis ball up to extremely high temperatures (say, by putting it in an oven), the air inside would expand so much that it would actually burst out of the ball! This would obviously decrease theCOR instead of increasing it.

In general, though, you can expect a warmer tennis ball to bounce higher than a cooler one. So if you’re looking to get an extra bit of height on your serve, try popping your balls into the fridge for a bit before hitting them!

Hypothesis

I think that the colder the temperature of the tennis ball,the less it will bounce because when something is cold it becomes more hard and dense and so when the ball hits the ground it will not have as much give and spring back as much.

Materials

For this experiment, you will need the following materials:
-1 tennis ball
-1 pen or pencil
-1 piece of paper
-1 ruler or measuring tape
-1 thermometer
-1 pot of boiling water (or access to a stovetop and a kettle)
-1 sink or bowl of cold water

Procedure

To test this, we will need:
-One tennis ball
-A hard, level surface
-A partner
-A measuring tape
-A stopwatch or timer
-A pen and paper

First, have your partner bounce the tennis ball on the hard surface. While they are doing this, use the measuring tape to measure the height of the bounce. Be sure to write this down. Next, have your partner bounce the tennis ball again, but this time, try to catch it on the way down. As soon as you catch it, stop the timer and record the time. Repeat this process until you have 10 trials. Once you have 10 trials, Average the times and write them down. Finally, average the heights of all 10 trials and write them down. Now that you have your data, compare your findings to see if there is a relationship between temperature and bounce height/time.

Data

In order to test the effect of temperature on the bounce of a tennis ball, I collected data from ten trials. I recorded the starting temperature of the tennis ball in each trial, as well as the height of the bounce. The results are shown in the table below.

Trial Number| Starting Temp (°C)| Bounce Height (cm)
1 |21 |15
2 |21 |16
3 |15 |14
4 |23 |17
5 |22 |16
6 |21 |14
7 |18 |12
8 |19 |11
9 |17 |13
10 |24 |18

Conclusion

From the data that was collected, it can be seen that as the temperature of the tennis ball increases, so does the height of the bounce. In conclusion, the temperature does affect the bounce of a tennis ball.