Conservation of Momentum: If objects within a system collide, the momentum of the individual objects before and after a collision may change, but the total momentum of the system will remain constant.
1. Describe what happened to the top ball during the double-ball drop experiment.
During the double-ball drop experiment, the top ball moved up while the bottom ball moved down. During the initial drop, the balls are released and fall to the ground with the same acceleration. However, the instant that the bottom ball hits the ground, the two balls experience the first collision. In order to conserve energy and momentum during the elastic collision, the collision causes the top ball to bounce upward with the same speed it had before hitting
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Meanwhile, the small rubber ball had an initial rebound height of 13 centimeters and an average rebound height of 59.25 centimeters and 97.25 centimeters respectively as the top ball. The large rubber ball recorded an initial height of 20 centimeters and an average rebound height of 36.5 centimeters as the top ball. The ping pong ball recorded an initial rebound height of 20.5 centimeters and average rebound heights of 56.5 centimeters and 63.25 centimeters respectively. Lastly, the glass marble recorded and initial rebound height of 17.25 centimeters and an average rebound height of 74 centimeters and 55 centimeters respectively as the top ball. Based on the data, the small rubber ball performed the best as the top ball, as it recorded a high of 97.25 centimeters when bounced off the basketball and 59.25 centimeters when off the large rubber ball. Even when bounced off of balls varying in mass, the small rubber was still able to reach above-average heights, likely attributed to the relatively small mass and therefore inertia of the small rubber ball to be easily displaced and gain