Acoustic measurements of bouncing balls and the determination of gravitational

acceleration
Oliver SchwarzPatrik VogtJochen Kuhn

Citation: The Physics Teacher 51, 312 (2013); doi: 10.1119/1.4801369

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4801369
View Table of Contents: http://aapt.scitation.org/toc/pte/51/5
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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 Jochen Kuhn and Patrik Vogt, Column Editors,
Department of Physics/Didactics of Physics, University of Kaiserslautern,
iPhysicsLabs Erwin-Schrödinger-Str., 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany; kuhn@physik.uni-kl.de

Acoustic measurements
of bouncing balls and the
determination of gravita-
tional acceleration
Oliver Schwarz, University of Siegen, Germany Department
of Physics–Didactics of Physics, Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2, 57068
Siegen, Germany; schwarz@physik.uni-siegen.de
Patrik Vogt, Realschule Plus Herxheim (junior high), Südring
11,76863 Herxheim, Germany; vogt_patrik@me.com
Jochen Kuhn, University of Kaiserslautern, Department of Phys-
ics–Didactics of Physics, Erwin-Schroedinger-Straße, 67663 Fig. 1. Chronological sequence of the sound signals
Kaiserslautern, Germany; kuhn@physik.uni-kl.de made by a bouncing ball.

I nteresting experiments can be performed and fundamen-

tal physical relationships can be explored with so-called
Super Balls or bouncy balls. An example is the determination
of gravity g in an experiment. The basic idea behind this was
described by Pape1 and Sprockhoff 2: The initial and final
heights and the complete duration of all the bounces are
measured for a certain number of bounces by the ball. On the
basis of this data, the acceleration of gravity can be approxi-
mately calculated if air drag on the ball is neglected. However,
in practice, it becomes clear that measuring the height of the
last bounce in the process is problematic. The person per-
forming the experiment either has to make a good estimation
of its height or film the bounce in front of a measuring stick. Fig. 2. Experiment setup for the acoustic measurement
The method is based on the important assumption that each using an iPad.
of the individual bounces of the ball loses the same percentage
of mechanical energy; the coefficient of restitution k therefore smooth surface, e.g., a stone slab.
remains the same.
Determination of the acceleration of
Acoustic data measurement gravity
Inspired by the research referred to above, our objective A vertically thrown ball rebounds upward between two
was to find an effective way of collecting data about a Super impacts. The energy loss between two impacts could be repre-
Ball’s bouncing process in order to measure the speed of grav- sented by the coefficient of restitution
ity, free fall, and the throw and the coefficients of restitution
in an experiment. We found the use of an acoustic measure Taking fundamental equations into account,8 the coefficient
particularly effective, as described in Refs. 3-5. The sounds of restitution could be calculated to
made by the impacts of the ball are recorded with a micro-
phone as voltage signals over a certain period of time. This (1)
produces a chronological sequence for a Super Ball, with the
sound made by the impacts resulting in surprisingly sharp It could be proved that the coefficient of restitution k remains
peaks, as can be seen Fig. 1. These peaks can be seen as time constant, even for very different heights.9
markers. The data were collected using an iPad equipped In order to determine g, the maximum height of the ball
with the Oscilloscope app,6 which can also be installed on an between two impacts has to be measured at least once dur-
iPhone or iPod touch.7 The simple experiment setup can be ing the bouncing process. It makes sense to select the initial
seen in Fig. 2. height of the ball for this, which was 0.7 m for the experiment
The person conducting the experiment should select the described below, as it is easily measured. The analysis was
highest possible buffer size (2000 ms), start the measurement, conducted as follows.
and then release the Super Ball onto a solid hard, horizontal, Assuming that the person performing the experiment has

312 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 51, May 2013 DOI: 10.1119/1.4801369
 iPhysicsLabs
Table I. Determination of gravitational acceleration on the basis
of three impact times, with an initial height of 0.7 m each time.

Calculated
Impact times value of
g m/s2
t1 = 0.248 s, t2 = 0.955 s, t3 = 1.617 s 9.82

t1 = 0.201 s, t2 = 0.898 s, t3 = 1.549 s 10.06

t1 = 0.129 s, t2 = 0.830 s, t3 = 1.479 s 9.77

Fig. 3. Determination of the critical
sizes.
calculated the relative energy loss per impact k as described
previously and has ascertained that the value remains con-
stant from bounce to bounce, it is possible to determine the
maximum height h2 of the ball after its first impact with the
floor. If h1 designates the measured initial height, then the
maximum height is given by:
h2 = k . h1. (2)
The free-fall time of the ball from its height h2 until its
impact is half of the time Dt between two impacts (Fig. 3). By
taking this consideration, Eq. (2), and the distance-time law
of free fall into account, g is obtained as follows:
(3)
The results of the three measurements with the same initial
height can be seen in Table I. In conclusion, it is possible to
measure the acceleration of gravity g and the relative energy
loss of an impact using a good Super Ball with a single record-
ing of the sound produced by the impacts. The experiment
yields a result that is sufficiently accurate for the purposes of
physics instruction.
References
1. B. V. Pape, “Fallbeschleunigung mit einem hüpfenden Ball”
(translated as “Determining acceleration of free fall with Super
Ball”), Praxis der Naturwissenschaften – Physik in der Schule
(translated as Practice of Sciences – Physics in School), 4/49,
28–32 (Aug. 2000).
2. G. Sprockhoff, Physikalische Schulversuche, Mechanik (translat-
ed as Physical Experiments in School, Mechanics) (Oldenbourg
Verlag, Munich/Düsseldorf, 1961).
3. O. Schwarz and P. Vogt, “Akustische Messungen an springen-
den Bällen” (translated as “Acoustic measurements of bouncing
balls”), Praxis der Naturwissenschaften – Physik in der Schule
(translated as Practice of Sciences – Physics in School), 3/53, 22-
25 (June 2004).
4. J. A. White, A. Medina, F. L. Román, and S. Velasco, “A mea-
surement of g listening to falling balls,” Phys. Teach. 45, 175–
177 (March 2007).
5. C. E. Aguiar and F. Laudares, “Listening to the coefficient of
restitution and the gravitational acceleration of a bouncing
ball,” Am. J. Phys. 71, 499–501 (May 2003).
6. The Oscilloscope app can be bought in the Apple Store at the
following link for $19.99: itunes.apple.com/us/app/
oscilloscope/id388636804 [Status: 05/03/2011].
7. Alternatively, a commercial measuring system or a free sound
editor (e.g., Audacity) can be used to make the acoustic record-
ings.
8. The kinetic energies Ekin1 and Ekin2 between two subsequent
impacts behave like the squares of the impact velocities, and
the rise and fall times tH of the ball are given with
Thereby we measure the time between two impacts,
i.e., Dt = 2tH.
9. J. Kuhn and P. Vogt, “Smartphones as experimental tools: Dif-
ferent methods to determine the gravitational acceleration
in classroom physics by using everyday devices,” Eur. J. Phys.
Educ. 4 (1), 16–27 (Jan. 2013).

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 51, May 2013 313