Why do balls bounce?
Real balls bounce fast, too fast for your eye to see. Harold “Doc” Edgerton used the strobe lights he invented to take the first clear photos of balls in the process of bouncing. These photos show that when a bat hits a ball, for instance, the ball becomes greatly deformed–just like the water balloon. If the ball is made from an elastic material, such as rubber, it springs back to its initial shape. As the ball pushes on the bat, the bat pushes back on the ball. (As Newton pointed out: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.) The ball bounces off the bat and into the air. Strange as it may seem, a ball bounces off the floor because the floor pushes it up!
