Vassar College Instructional Visualization

Interactive Physics Simulations

Students in Professor Cindy Schwarz's introductory calculus-based physics explore physics topics with simulations. The majority of the simulations are from the Interactive Physics Player Workbook.

Interactive Physics book cover

Consider the Question:

A ball is thrown straight up with an initial speed of 10 m/s.
The ball hits the ceiling in the room. It bounces off the ceiling and falls back to its starting point where it is caught. Is the speed of the ball when it is caught less than, greater than or equal to the initial speed of 10 m/s?

Well that depends.....

No energy is lost upon collision with the ceiling.

All of the ball's energy is lost when it collides with the ceiling.
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