I am in 4th grade, and working on a science fair project using a basketball and have it pumped with 0 psi, 3 psi, 6 psi, 9 psi and 12 psi of air. Why is it that the 9psi ball bounces the highest when dropped from 6ft? – T
The more pressure a basketball has inside it, the less its surface dents during a bounce and the more of its original energy it stores in the compressed air. Air stores and returns energy relatively efficiently during a rapid bounce, so the pressurized ball bounces high. But an underinflated ball dents deeply and its skin flexes inefficiently. Much of the ball’s original energy is wasted in heating the bending skin and it doesn’t bounce very high. In general, the higher the internal pressure in the ball, the better it will bounce.
However, the ball doesn’t bounce all by itself when you drop it on a flexible surface. In that case, the surface also dents and is responsible for part of the ball’s rebound. If that surface handles energy inefficiently, it may weaken the ball’s bounce. For example, if you drop the ball on carpeting, the carpeting will do much of the denting, will receive much of the ball’s original energy, and will waste its share as heat. The ball won’t rebound well. My guess is that you dropped the ball on a reasonably hard surface, but one that began to dent significantly when the ball’s pressure reached 12psi. At that point, the ball was extremely bouncy, but it was also so hard that it dented the surface and let the surface participate strongly in the bouncing. The surface probably wasn’t as bouncy as the ball, so it threw the ball relatively weakly into the air.
I’d suggest repeating your experiment on the hardest, most massive surface you can find. A smooth cement or thick metal surface would be best. The ball will then do virtually all of the denting and will be responsible for virtually all of the rebounding. In that case, I’ll bet that the 12psi ball will bounce highest.