Re: Top spin: Student question??

[Cliff Parker <cparker@EMPOWERING.COM>]

Good idea I think I will suggest he try this.  If the results are as
noticeable as you suggest I will enjoy seeing the results of such an
experiment.

Cliff Parker

Joseph Bellina wrote:

> Some year ago I took a black superball and painted two white stripes on it
> on two perpendicular equators.
> If I threw the ball so it bounced down a hall, it would alternately bounce
> long and low and the short and high.  Because of the white stripes it was
> easy to see that on the short high bounces the ball rotated rapidly while
> on the long bounces it rotated slowly.
> I never did try to unpeel the observation other than to say something
> about the interplay between translational and rotation kinetic energy.
> This is, I think, a good demostration of the sorts of interactions people
> have been referring to in this discussion.
>
> Interactive physics anyone?
>
> joe