Bouncing Ball

Use Questions 14–16 as part of a final whole-class discussion of the lab. These questions challenge students to think critically about what they have learned. For Question 14, students should see that both the lines are straight lines that begin at (0, 0) and go uphill. The line for the SuperBall^® is steeper than the line for the tennis ball.

Here is a student's answer for Question 15:

1. “The tennis ball. I think the tennis ball because on the graph I put my finger on 50 cm at the bottom and I went up and the tennis ball was closer to 18 cm than the SuperBall^®.”

Question 16 develops pre-algebra skills needed to interpret graphs. Students can reason that Maya's ball is Line Y since the bounce heights are smaller than the bounce heights for the tennis ball for the same drop height. Also, the line for the less bouncy tennis ball was less steep than the bouncier SuperBall^®. So the line for a ball less bouncy than the tennis ball will be less steep, like Line Y.