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Dropper Popper

Stock Code:
FSPOP-100
Unit:
Each
Price:
$15.00 (ex GST)

Description

A Dropper Popper is more than just half of a rubber ball. This incredible device seemingly defies the laws of physics by bouncing higher than where you dropped it! Requires a small amount of "activation energy" to work. It is molded into a very special shape that allows it to store elastic potential energy and then convert it to kinetic energy with a POP when dropped from a low height. An engaging activity for any physics or chemistry class!

Invert this half rubber ball and drop it. It will bounce up higher than the release point. Discuss conservation of energy with your students.

There is a minimum height required to trigger the popper that can be related to barrier potentials.

Try This:
Have your students experience the difference between gravitational and elastic potential energy. Invert a Dropper Popper, place a ping pong ball inside the cavity, and drop the Popper onto a hard surface with the ping pong ball on top... Be sure to wear goggles and have a high ceiling, or better yet, no ceiling at all! Estimate how high the ball travels. Change the height of the drop and determine if the height the ping pong ball travels is based more on gravitational or elastic potential energy.

In Stock