Sometimes people find my blog the loooooong way. Take for instance, the person who decided to search on ask.com one of the longest search phrases that I have ever seen.
When playing basketball on an unusually warm spring day, you notice that the ball is very firm and bounces well. on a very cold day a week later, the ball is not as firm, making it difficult to drebble [sic].
Well, FamiLee came up #6 on this search though I have never written about this subject. A quick google of the keywords "basketball cold air" however brought me to this site which led me to this home site on sports science. A very cool site!
Generally, cold balls are less bouncy than warm ones. That's because cold rubber is generally not as flexible as warm rubber. When a cold ball hits the floor, the deformation that follows the collision is concentrated at the bottom of the ball. This concentrated deformation causes the rubber molecules to collide with each other, producing warmth rather than rebound.
Okay, this sports science site may be something for me to explore. They have a series on the science of cycling. So, to the person who searched me the long way, thank you for the unexpected find!
Posted by richlee at February 8, 2007 09:24 AM