Don’t Touch the Ground! – Motion, Kinetic Energy and Momentum

Goalkeepers say that their job becomes more difficult if the ball bounces on the ground in front of them, because this leads to a change in energy and movement of the ball.

In the teaching unit ‘Don’t Touch the Ground!’ the students are introduced to the laws of physics related to the translational and rotational movement by looking at the football being a rotating solid object in rolling and bouncing motion. In simple experiments they let a ball roll down a ramp onto a flat ground and let it jump from a raised ramp. Afterwards they record the particular movement of the ball, analyse it with a videoanalysis tool and determine the changes in energy and velocity.

Authors: Dionysis Konstantinou (GR), Andreas Meier (DE), Zbigniew Trzmiel (PL)