Science: Bouncing Ball

About the Lesson

This activity examines the motion of a ball as it falls under the influence of gravity. The parameters in the vertex form of the quadratic equation y = a(x – h)² + k are determined to describe the behavior of a ball bounce. As a result, students will:

• Collect motion data and graph scatter plots.
• Determine the quadratic equation for a ball bounce.
• Determine the value of the coefficient a in the vertex form of a quadratic equation.
• Explore the effect of a on the shape of the graph.
• Interpret the meaning of the value of a in the context of the problem situation as one half of the acceleration due to gravity.