Why a slightly cracked ping-pong ball barely bounces.
In: Physics
For the same reason a leaking basketball barely bounces – air pressure.
I’m not sure if ping pong balls are positively charged with air or another gas, but they are sealed, so when they bounce, that air pocket is helping build potential energy in the form of increased air pressure in the ball as it deforms (volume decreased).
All that benefit goes away when the ball is even slightly cracked, since at that point it’s just a plastic shell and it just doesn’t have the ability to store potential energy on its own.
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