pic: Team 1501's, 2008 Ball Drop

[Wayne Doenges]

loading photo ...

[Nate Laverdure]

I would estimate that the height of a story, from floor to floor, is 18 feet, assuming that the kid in the black shirt is approximately 6 feet tall. This makes the total height to the floor of the 3rd floor equal to 2*18 = 36 ft. Since the kid's arms are outstretched, I would assume that he dropped the ball from about shoulder-height, which would put the bottom of the ball at approximately 2 ft above the 3rd floor. Total height = 38 ft.

According to the post, the ball bounced to a height of 17 ft. This means that "bounce percentage" would equal 17/38 * 100 % = 44.7%.

[VanMan]

I thought about having our robot bounce it on the ground, but it would not be inaccurate and there are better solutions.

[evanisthat!]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

I would estimate that the height of a story, from floor to floor, is 18 feet, assuming that the kid in the black shirt is approximately 6 feet tall. This makes the total height to the floor of the 3rd floor equal to 2*18 = 36 ft. Since the kid's arms are outstretched, I would assume that he dropped the ball from about shoulder-height, which would put the bottom of the ball at approximately 2 ft above the 3rd floor. Total height = 38 ft.

According to the post, the ball bounced to a height of 17 ft. This means that "bounce percentage" would equal 17/38 * 100 % = 44.7%.

Your estimations seem right, but don't you have to convert the inches to feet or the feet to inches in order to get an accurate percent? 17/(38*12)*100% = 3.72%? Correct me if I am wrong...

[Nate Laverdure]

Nope, the image said that the ball was dropped from the 3rd story (about 38 ft) and bounced back up about 17 ft, which would be about 45%.

[flamefixed]

how its wrriten, it bounced seventeen feet. 17'
if it bounced 17 inches.. 17" then, wow, very deadening weight.

[Wayne Doenges]

We didn't measure the height at drop. The second floor is over an atrium which would make it a little higher than 38 feet. Student is a little over 5' tall.
We had about 6 students arranged around the bounce zone to protect the surrounding objects.

[evanisthat!]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

Nope, the image said that the ball was dropped from the 3rd story (about 38 ft) and bounced back up about 17 ft, which would be about 45%.

My mistake, I thought you said 17 inches (obviously) sorry..

[dlavery]

We tried this once with our robot as well.

Without going through all the details of the experiment, I will pass along our conclusions:

Robots do not bounce as well as the balls.


-dave



.

[Elgin Clock]

Please do not try this (awesome) experiment at your hotels this season with very large open atrium areas.

Thank you.

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Please do not try this (awesome) experiment at your hotels this season with very large open atrium areas.

Thank you.

Air resistance would become too big of a factor to get good results anyways.

[IndySam]

Wayne, you better be more kind to that ball. With all the rain you guys are getting you may need it as a life saving device!

[Chris_Elston]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Wayne, you better be more kind to that ball. With all the rain you guys are getting you may need it as a life saving device!

We also might need to unzip it, crawl inside and protect us from Tornadoes in January....

[Terminator]

How high would it bounce if you dropped it off of the Empire State Building?
Has anyone tried that yet?