Thread: Ball Texture
View Single Post
  #7   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 22-01-2012, 22:40
evoluti1's Avatar
Happy Birthday! evoluti1 evoluti1 is offline
Registered User
AKA: Joe
FRC #1197 (TorBots)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Rookie Year: 2009
Location: Torrance, CA
Posts: 25
evoluti1 has a spectacular aura aboutevoluti1 has a spectacular aura about
Re: Ball Texture

We've hypothesized that this difference in behavior is due to the air-tightness of the ball's outer surface. If you take a brand new ball and squish it all the way, the air rushes out and takes time to find the few holes in the ball's skin as it rushes back in. However, an old ball with cuts and tears in it appears to bounce back because the air can rush in faster.

If you're going to assume anything, assume they'll bounce back. Our guess is that they'll probably all be like that after the first match (definitely after Thursday at competitions). However, it's better not to assume anything. Different balls will have different surface features, even older balls may be slow to bounce back also as the foam wears out. It's best to build a ball-ejecting mechanism that doesn't care how fresh or messed up the balls are.

Hope that helps!