Physics Practical Yr 5

Name: Keiji Yamamoto

Date : / /

EXPERIMENT 2305:
Finding the coefficient of restitution between a table-tennis ball and the ceramic floor.

In this IB Lab you will be assessed on the following IB criterion:-

Aim:
In this experiment you will investigate the bouncing of a table-tennis ball on ceramics to determine
the coefficient of restitution between them.

Apparatus:
Metre rule, retort stand with boss and clamp, crocodile clip, table-tennis ball, ceramic, set-square, vernier
caliper.

Theory:
The coefficient of restitution is a measure of the elasticity of the collision. Elasticity is a measure of how
much bounce there is, or in other words, how much of the kinetic energy of the colliding objects before
the collision remains as kinetic energy of the objects after the collision. With an inelastic collision, some
kinetic energy is transformed into deformation of the material, heat, sound, and other forms of energy,
and is therefore unavailable for use in moving.
A perfectly elastic collision has a coefficient of restitution of 1. Example: two diamonds bouncing off
each other. A perfectly plastic, or inelastic, collision has c = 0. Example: two lumps of clay that don't
bounce at all, but stick together. So the coefficient of restitution will always be between zero and one.

The coefficient itself is given by: for an object bounding off a stationary object, such as a

ceramic block. Where Vf and Vi is the scalar velocity of the object after and before impact respectively.

The coefficient can also be found with: where h is the bounce height and H is the drop
height.

Data Collection and Analysis:

 Calculate s, the slope of your graph, where
Gradient (s) = 0.5482
Conclusion and Evaluation:

 Calculate a value for the coefficient of restitution, e, between the table-

tennis ball and ceramic
0.5
Coefficient of restitution = root of gradient = 0.5482 = 0.7404 (4.s.f)
0.5
Maximum coefficient of restitution= 0.6 =0.7746 (4.s.f)
0.5
Minimum coeffecient of restitution= 0.5 =0.7071 (4.s.f)
Uncertainty of coefficient of restitution=(max-min)/2=0.0338
Percentage uncertainty of coefficient of restitution0.0338/0.7404x100%=4.6%(2.s.f)

 How does the value of your experiment compares with the literature value?
According to https://isjos.org/JoP/vol1/Papers/JoPv1i1-2Tennis.pdf, a science organization, they had
stated that the average coefficient of rest|*itution of the ball is equal to 0.7435.
Hence, in order to calculate the percentage error we can use the formula:

|(literature value-experimental value)/literature value|

x100%

= |(0.7435-0.7404)/0.7435|*100%=0.42% (2.s.f)
Strength and weakness
-Parallax error
As we used a phone camera placed on the floor, the angle between the camera lens and the the meter
rule would not be perpendicular.
Therefore, it is unable to determine exact rebound height as there would be an angle between the ball
and the phone. This will cause systematic error
for this practical.
-Air resistance
Although the effect of air resistance inside the room may not be significant however, if it is not taken
into account we would not reach the literature value. Air resistance will cause the drop velocity to
decrease
Causing the rebound height to be lower then literature rebound height.
-White lines in the ball
If the tennis ball lands on the white part of the tennis ball, it would give different coefficient of
restitution as it is made out of different material. Also, it might cause the ball to bounce back up at a
certain angle as the white lines
are concaved. This is one of the possible source of random error giving anomaly to the data.
-Repeated experiment
This experiment was repeated three times to ensure that most of the random error is reduced, which
helps to closen the experimental value to literature valueand increasing reliability.
-Slow mo Technology
We used the slow mo technology to ensure that we take the maximum rebound height of the ball by
slowing it down and watching it frame by frame.

Improvement
- Using a tennis ball that is a perfect sphere and the surface is made out of same material
- Larger range of independent variable could be used to further justify that the graph is linear. For
exapple, instead of 1.0,0.9,0.8,0.7,0.6 we can use wider range such as 5.0,4.0,4.0,3.0,2.0,1.0.
- As we roughly know the rebound height, repeat the experiment with placing the phone on the
height level as expected rebound height. This will reduce parallax error and improve the
experiment.
In conclusion, the experiment was conducted well as the e value of the experiment was very close to the
literate value of e. This is seen through the 0.42% small percentage error. Also,
the coefficient of restitution found is also fairly reliable as the percentage uncertainty is 4.6%.