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Stroboscopic Photograph of a Bouncing Ball

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Stroboscopic photography is a technique to study a moving object (commonly a bouncing ball) that shows its position at equal time intervals using a flashing strobe light and a camera with an open shutter. The relation between the maximum distance fallen and the distance traveled in the latest time interval is observed.

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At the top of each bounce, the energy is potential, and at the bottom, it is kinetic, so this experiment shows their interplay. Every bounce has less height because a fraction of the mechanical energy is conserved and the rest is converted to heat.

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Contributed by: Enrique Zeleny (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

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