Wang 1

Yize Wang

Mrs.Stevens

Life Science

21 February 2020

Does Temperature Affect the Distance a Basketball Will Roll?

One day in the winter last year, when I was participating in a basketball practice, I

accidentally threw a ball at a little ramp on one side of the court. When I went to grab it, it rolled

down from the top of the ramp and it rolled very far away. There was an idea that suddenly out

of my mind right after I caught the ball. Does the temperature affect the distance a ball will roll?

If it is, then it’s harder for us to find and pick the ball up. So I decided to do this research. I

thought that if basketballs are heated up and cooled down, then the hotter one will go a longer

distance.

How Does Temperature Affect Air Pressure?

If warm water is in a metal cup, then the air will not be cooled and it will not form a

liquid condensation on the surface of the water. Researchers need materials to do the experiment

that relate to it such as identical balloons, markers, and ice water with the same temperature. Put

two balloons in a cold condition while another in a normal room temperature. And then see if

which will bounce higher when dropping them from the same height. Consider that on cold days,

basketballs don’t bounce as high as in a warm temperature. When conducting the experiment,

researchers made the basketballs as identical as possible. The ball’s size in a cold water should

be lower than the one in warm temperature (Institute).

How Does Air Pressure Affect Height That a Basketball Bounces?

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The height the ball bounces relates to the pressure inside the ball, when the pressure is

high, the ball will bounce higher. If the ball involved in the experiment is over inflated(pressure

is TOO high than it should be)it will cause bad effects. Before starting the experiment the outside

pressure should be fairly constant. The inner pressure of the ball should be in a range of 7.5 to

8.5 lbs. When testing, we should keep the outside temperature constant and experiment

conductors should choose a lower of basin which air is enough to keep the data accurate. So after

the experiment, researchers get the conclusion that the higher air pressure will cause the higher

of height that balls bounced (Hutchinson).

What Happens to Objects When Temperature Changes?

When the air temperature is increased, it will cause the molecules to move faster than

they used to be. Particles’ movement is also affected by the temperature. As we use a balloon to

do the experiment, it shows that when higher temperature is applied, they became expanded.

When we applied heat to ice, the situation has changed such that the ice will melt but not expand.

When heat is applied, the volume of things like water bottles will also increase. From experiment

it is evident that higher temperature causes greater volume (Temperature).

What Factors Affect How Far Something Will Roll?

The ramp is one of the most important things, they should be kept the same. When the

height of the ramp increases, the distance that the ball rolls will be longer. For instance,

researchers can use the 100cm ramp and set two points as starting and ending points. There

should be two ramps and the balls should be let go at the same time in order to keep the distance

fair. Keep the data as accurate as possible(millimeter). See which variable always change the

distance and it is easy to get the result. But needed to try more than 1 time (What).
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What Is Boyle’s Law and How Is It Related to Air Pressure?

Boyle’s law was founded by English chemist Boyle. This is the first "law" discovered in

human history. Basically, it’s about how in a constant temperature, the volume of an ideal gas is

inversely proportional to the pressure of the air. His experiment in 1622 proved and accounted

for his conclusion. The conclusion we know is that air can be condensed while water cannot.

Another theory is that the density of air will be smaller as the altitude goes higher (Fowler).

How Different Surfaces Affect the Distance That the Balls Roll?

Use smooth texture like napkins or tissues. Researchers should create two ramps with the

completely same properties. According to Newton’s second law, a moving object such as what

we are testing, basketballs, they will change their speed when they are set to a ramp and roll at

the same time. The ball’s textures should be kept same because the friction between the ball

surface and the ramp will also cause the variable to change. The rolling distance will also be

affected by the distance between the ball’s surface and the ramp surface. The size of the

basketball changes, it will affect the distance (Spangler).

Conclusion

I thought that if the basketballs were heated up or cooled down, then the hotter one will

roll faster,and I found out that actually the cooler ball rolls faster. On average, the distance of the

orange ball(the cold one)roll is approximately 5.242 meters. The mean of the distance the black

ball(normal temperature ball)rolls is around 5.131. The first three times, the cold ball went

farther than the black ball. As the temperature of the orange ball got higher, the distance that the

ball rolled became inaccurate. At the 4th time, the result comes very close. At the 5th time,the

black ball goes much farther than the orange ball.

 Wang 4

Work Cited

Fowler, Michael. “Boyle's Law and the Law of Atmospheres.” Boyle, 2019,

galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/152.mf1i.spring02/Boyle.htm.

Hutchison, Patrick. “Does Air Pressure Affect the Bounce of a Basketball?” SportsRec, 15 Oct.

2019, www.sportsrec.com/7218737/does-air-pressure-affect-the-bounce-of-a-basketball.

institute, Americangeoscience. “How Does Temperature Affect Air Pressure?” American

Geosciences Institute, 19 Nov. 2016,

www.americangeosciences.org/education/k5geosource/activities/investigations/weather/

weather/how-does-temperature-affect-air-pressure.

Spangler , Steve. “The Effect of Surface Texture - Science Fair: Experiments: Steve

Spangler Science.” The Lab, 2019,

www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/the-effect-of-surface-texture-upon-a-roll

ing-marble/.

Temperature Changes Everything.” Science NetLinks, AAAS, 2019,

sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/temperature-changes-everything/.

What Affects How Far a Ball Rolls down a Ramp? - GCSE Science - Marked by Teachers.com.”

Marked by Teachers, 2015,

www.markedbyteachers.com/gcse/science/what-affects-how-far-a-ball-rolls-down-a-ramp

.html.