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I am doing a science project and I have a question: If you serve the volleyball with certain air pumped into it, which ball goes further, the one completely filled up with air, or the one with less air? I was wondering if you could give me any help/ info on this. Thank you for you time.
Question Date: 2006-02-05
Answer 1:

The more air in the ball, the further it will go. At least until the pressure is pretty high, this is not a big surprise and based on more pressure making the ball more "elastic": if you hit a floppy volleyball, it deforms a lot and in part without bouncing back into shape, thereby absorbing some of the energy of your hitting it by deforming, which would be "plastic" behavior.

On the other hand, a well inflated ball will deform for a very brief moment when you hit it, but then the pressure inside makes its wall bounce back into shape, propelling the ball forward and away from your hand.



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