Besides the material of the object, what causes things to bounce? For example, a bowling ball and a feather won’t bounce (assumption) on a concrete floor. Neither will a flat piece of paper but once you crumple it, there’s a chance it will bounce. Talking specifically about free falling objects, not thrown or anything with force applied to it. Does the distance of the drop also affect if something will bounce?
In: Physics
When you drop something it starts off at 0 speed, but with lots of potential energy. While falling it turns that potential energy into kinetic energy.
When it hits the floor it still has that kinetic energy and it has to go somewhere. Some of that turns into heat, and some into sound. And a lot of the energy is used to deform the floor and the falling object a little bit.
This deformation depends on the materials involved. A pingpong ball will squash easily, and then when it un-squashes itself, it pushes against the floor and bounces back up.
The only thing the distance changes (in most cases) is how high it bounces. The bounce itself all depends on the materials involved.
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