Hooked on Science: Racquetball popper

Materials

• Racquetball
• Ping-Pong ball
• Scissors

Instructions

• STEP 1: Have an adult cut the racquetball in half.
• STEP 2: Using the scissors, remove a portion of each of the hemispheres. Turn one of the racquetball poppers inside out.
• STEP 3: With the concaved portion toward the floor, drop the racquetball popper on the floor and observe. What happens? If the racquetball popper does not "pop" into the air, use the scissors to remove more of the racquetball, until the popper "pops" into the air.
• STEP 4: Turn the popper inside out again. Instead of just dropping the popper on the floor, apply a force and push the popper toward the floor. What happens? How does applying a force when dropping the popper compare to not applying a force?
• STEP 5: Design, test and refine your popper, so that when the Ping-Pong ball is placed into the concaved part of the popper and dropped, the stored energy from the popper is transferred to the Ping-Pong ball, shooting the Ping-Pong ball into the air. Through observation, predict the motion of the Ping-Pong ball each time it's dropped with the popper.

Explanation

Energy, which is the ability to do work, is stored when the racquetball popper is turned inside out. Potential energy is stored energy. Once the popper hits the floor, the potential energy is transformed or changed to kinetic energy, which is energy of motion. When this happens, either the popper "pops" into the air or, if the Ping-Pong ball is placed into the popper, it will shoot into the air.