CRAZY BALLS

mechanics

Description of the device

Device demonstrates the law of conservation of energy, transfer of energy and transformation of potential energy into kinetic energy.

Phenomenon

When two balls, which are falling at the same time, bounce of the base, total mechanical energy and total momentum of the balls are conserved. Bouncing occurs in two stages following in very short time period: the bottom ball bounces of the base and while moving up, collides with the smaller ball that is still falling. In this collision, upper ball, which has smaller mass, gains more energy at the expense of the bottom more massive ball – and in result it’s elevated to greater height.

How to use it

Raise both balls to height of about a meter in such a way that the smaller sphere is placed on top of the bigger one. Drop them freely. Observe how high each of them bounces.