Ball Drop Project

Math 2120 Professor Jean Gerardo Gonzalez Spring 2013

How do we find the distance traveled for a tennis ball when it is dropped from a known height?
We

can figure out the distance traveled for a tennis ball when it is dropped from a known height by using calculus and analytical software.

Procedure:
Step

1: To determine the distance traveled you first must use a hi tech digital video camera with high frames rates per second. Record the ball drop from a known height and let the ball drop until it stops bouncing. Then you must upload the video on to an analytical software. I used logger pro.

Step 2: On logger pro set your scale to a known height. This is known as a reference point. My scale was 60inches. Then set your origin where the ball hits the floor. Step 3:Then mark the tennis ball with a point when the ball is released and when the ball touches the floor. Do this consecutively until the ball stops bouncing.

The great thing about logger pro is that it allows you to mark points when the tennis ball is released and when it touches the floor. These points are then transferred to a graph. With this graph you are able to recognize that a sequence is occurring.

Here I put points on the tennis ball and I also used a cool feature that lets me measure the distant of each successive fall.

Like I said the neat thing about logger pro is that I can put dots on my tennis ball from top to bottom and logger pro automatically makes a graph of it. This is a graph that represents the tennis ball bouncing from top to bottom. If you are an amazing math whiz you will recognize that this is a sequence.

Unfortunately, since my tennis ball goes beneath the origin, I am not able to get the last few measurements. If I would have included that last few measurements I would have gotten results that were inconclusive because the tennis ball is beneath the origin. The tennis ball also starts to move a bit to this side. This causes lots of trouble for logger pro because logger pro has trouble measuring the distance of the ball drop when the tennis ball moves out of place. In brief, the angle at which the video was shot, and the fact that the ball moved out of its place causes logger pro to measure the distance of the ball drop inaccurately.

After your done gathering your measurements with logger pro, you can continue to the calculus part of the project.

With the measurements and graph that were obtained by using Logger Pro, we are able to develop a sequence. A sequence is a set of ordered values. My values for my sequence are {h n } 59.58,33.69,18.49,10.69, 6.163

Initial Height:59.58inches Values: h0 59.58 h1 33.69 h2 18.49 h3 10.69 h4 6.163

The reason why I dont have a lot of measurements is because the last few bounces were underneath the origin on Logger Pro. Like I said earlier if I would have measured the last few ball bounces I would have came out with negative values for the measurements.

We have our measurements, but we are missing some important details. These details are crucial to get the total distant traveled. Since I only measured the ball dropping from top to bottom, I have to take into consideration that the ball also traveled from bottom to top on each measurement except the first one. I will have to multiply the series that will be shown in the future slides by 2. I then subtract 59.58 from the total distance traveled because I multiplied the first measurement by 2.

{h n } 59.58,33.69,18.49,10.69, 6.163
As in all calculus books, a sequence can be related to a series. Interestingly, every series has a related sequence of partial sums. We use r to figure out the pattern of the sequence of partial sums that is related to the series.

Original sequence:

{hn } 59.58,33.69,18.49,10.69, 6.163

Sequence of Partial Sums: {Sn } 59.58,33.72,19.08,10.80, 6.11

Finding a Pattern

To find the sequence of partial sums we have to determine a pattern from one height to the next.
With this pattern we are able to create a sequence of partial sums. To figure out the pattern, we have to divide the second height by the first height to see the pattern. This results in what we call a ratio or percentage. After we figure out the individual ratios we add up all ratios and divide them by the total number of ratios. This is our avg. ratio.

h1 / h0

Finding out what R is.

The

ratio changes as you move down the sequence. When all the ratios are calculated, the avg ratio for my problem is
h1 / h 0 33.69 / 59.58 .565 h2 / h1 18.49 / 33.69 .548 h3 / h2 10.69 /18.49 .578 h4 / h3 6.163 /10.69 .576 AvgRatio :.566

Now that we have our avg. ratio we can find our sequence of partial sums. Abbreviated: S
n

h0 59.58 h1 h0 (.566) 33.72 h2 h0 (.566)(.566) 19.08 h3 h0 (.566)(.566)(.566) 10.80 h4 h0 (.566)(.566)(.566)(.566) 6.11

The pattern that was revealed:

S n h0 (r )

h0 is the inital height r is the ratio n is the term in the sequence

The sequence of partial sum is similar to the geometric series.

However,

the sequence of partial sums S does not contain a sum. The geometric series does.
S n h0 (r ) n Does not contain sum.

h (r )
k 0 0

This series does contain a sum and is slightly in the form of a partial sum,

however, with a few changes it results in a Geometric series. The changes are h0 =a and n k

ar
k 0

Geometric Series ar
k k 0

is our initial height=59.58inches r is the ratio: .566 k is the number in the sequence

Computing the Infinite Series

We

know that r has to be less than 1. Because if it is not it diverges. If r is less than on then that means that the Geometric series is convergent. By the geometric series being convergent we can use the formula S a
n

1 r

Results:

2 59.58(.566) =119.16(.566)k
k k 0 k 0

a 119.16 274.56 59.58 214.98inches 1 r 1 (.566)

I only included measurements from top to bottom, not from bottom to top in my sequences. Thats why I multiplied the series by 2 so I can account for the bottom to top of my measurements. I also had to subtract 59.58 from the distant traveled because I multiplied by 2 to the initial measurement.

Total Distant Traveled:214.98 inches

The End!