Then if you position the balls a bit differently, with one on top of the other instead of next to the other, then the ball on top flies much higher than it would normally bounce. Because of this, the ball below bounces significantly less the distance than it would normally bounce.
My hypothesis to this horrible phenomenon is that the energy from the lower ball gets transferred to the ball on top of when the upper ball bounces against the lower ball.
If you think about it, it makes a bit of sense before you even experiment. If something at rest pushes an object, then will it go very far? Now compare that to an object in motion pushing another object. Yeah.
Before we get started, I'll my plan of action is to conduct this experiment several times and take notes. I may even look this up if I get desperate. Then, I shall connect this to Newton's second and third laws and use fancy words like mass, weight, and inertia.
The California Standards associated with this dynamic based problem are:
1. Newton's laws predict the motion of most objects. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to solve problems that involve constant speed and average speed. b. Students know that when forces are balanced, no acceleration occurs; thus an object continues to move at a constant speed or stays at rest (Newton's first law). c. Students know how to apply the law F=ma to solve one-dimensional motion problems that involve constant forces (Newton's second law). d. Students know that when one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object always exerts a force of equal magnitude and in the opposite direction (Newton's third law). e. Students know the relationship between the universal law of gravitation and the effect of gravity on an object at the surface of Earth. f. Students know applying a force to an object perpendicular to the direction of its motion causes the object to change direction but not speed (e.g., Earth's gravitational force causes a satellite in a circular orbit to change direction but not speed). g. Students know circular motion requires the application of a constant force directed toward the center of the circle. h. * Students know Newton's laws are not exact but provide very good approximations unless an object is moving close to the speed of light or is small enough that quantum effects are important. i. * Students know how to solve two-dimensional trajectory problems. j. * Students know how to resolve two-dimensional vectors into their components and calculate the magnitude and direction of a vector from its components. k. * Students know how to solve two-dimensional problems involving balanced forces (statics).
I wanted to add picture because I explained this horribly, but ran out of time...so oh well.
