Explore experiments

Where the bounce goes

Rubber, steel, oak and clay, all the same size, all dropped from ten metres at the same instant. Each one carries a property wired from nodes that computes its live kinetic energy and its total path length, and each one glows with the energy it has left. Watch the clay give everything to the floor on the first hit while the rubber ball keeps handing it back. The glow is not a lighting effect — it is ½mv², measured every step.