Energy transfer through balls

Materials A large heavy ball (Basketball) A smaller, light ball (Tennis Ball)

Methods Make sure you have plenty of room Put smaller ball on top of heavier ball, holding one hand under basketball and one hand on top of tennis ball Let go of both balls at exactly the same time Observe what happens

What do you think will happen?

Observation When I dropped the balls at the same time, the tennis ball bounced off the basketball and flew high into the air. Both balls hit each other just after they hit the ground. A lot of the kinetic energy in the larger basketball was transferred through to the smaller tennis ball sending it high into the air.

Conclusion While I held the balls in the air before dropping them they had another type of energy called “potential energy” The balls gained this through the effort it took me to lift the balls up. It is interesting to note that energy is never lost, only transferred into other kinds of energy.