LESSON 4 Bouncing Ball

Ana and Tanya wanted to play jacks at lunch time. Tanya brought jacks from home, but forgot the ball. Mrs. Dewey told the girls that they could look for a ball in the closet where the class keeps playground equipment. They found an old tennis ball and a SuperBall^®.

Ana said, “I’ll use the SuperBall^®, and you can use the tennis ball.”

“No, that wouldn’t be fair,” said Tanya. “The balls won’t bounce the same. We have to use the same ball.”

“Oh, you’re right. Which one should we use?” Ana began to bounce the balls to try them out. “They both bounce pretty well when I drop them from here, but we will sit down when we play jacks.”

Mrs. Dewey said, “You girls better go outside and get your game started or lunch will be over. Experiment with both of the balls before you start to play. You’ve given me an idea for an experiment we can do in class.”

After lunch, Mrs. Dewey asked Tanya and Ana to let her have the tennis ball and the SuperBall^®. She asked the class, “Can you predict how high the tennis ball will bounce if I drop it from 1 meter?”

Students answered:

“One meter.”

“Yeah, one meter.”

“Half as high. 50 centimeters.”

”Higher than a meter.“