helium+basketball

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Title
Whats the affect of putting helium in a basketball do to the height of the bounce.

Problem Scenario
I am trying to find out if the type

Specific Question
What will happen to the bounce of a basketball if I put helium in it insteads of hoxegen

Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that the basketball with oxegen will bounce higher that the ball with helium.

Independent Variable:
The type of gas i put in the basketball.

Dependent Variable:
How high the basketball bounces

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
The high i drop the ball from. The type of basketball I use.

General Plan
I am going to get two of the exact same basketballs and fill one up with helium and another with hoxegen. I will drop them at a certian hight and messure the height that they bolth bounce.

Potential Problems And Solutions
I will have to make sure i drop them off at the same hight. Make sure there is the sme PSI in each ball.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns
I will have to make sure that the ball wont bounce into anyone.

Experimental Design

 * = Controlled, manipulated experiment =

What is your experimental unit?
testing how high basketballs bounce with diffrent gases.

Number Of Trials:
Ten trials per gas. **Number of Observations:** I will make ten observations.

When data will be collected
February 13.

Where will data be collected?:
Be At my house on my living room floor which is wood. = Comparative Study =

Number Of Comparison Categories:
Two.

Number of Comparison Samples:
Two.

Number Of Observation In Each Sample:
One.

When data will be collected
February 13

Where will data be collected?:
My kitchen table.

= Descriptive Study =

Item or process to be described:
The bounce.

Methods of observation:
This should include both Quatitative Measurements as well as Qualitative Observation

How many sample will you use to form your description?
You should base your description on more than one thing.

Measurements to be collected:
The height of the bounce.

When data will be collected
Febuary 13

Where will data be collected?:
My living room floor which is wood. = Innovation =

What is your experimental unit?
The bouncing.

Number Of Trials:
10

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:
Two

Number of Observations:
15

When data will be collected
Febuary 13

Where will data be collected?:
My house on my living room floor which is wood. ||

Resources and Budget Table

 * Item || Number needed || Where I will get this || Cost ||
 * Basketball || 2 || my house || 0 ||
 * helium || small canister full ||  ||   ||

Detailed Procedure

 * I am going to get a basketball.
 * I have to get helium.
 * I have to make a contraption to drop the basketball at the same height.
 * I have to measure the height of the bounce with helium inside the ball.
 * I have to next measure the height of the bounce with oxegen in the ball.
 * Then record the data.

Time Line
February 8 I am going to start testing then record my data. February 9th I will put the data in a table.

Data Table
Bounce Height (cm)

Helium 33 34 32 33 33 32 32 33 32 32

air 36 37 37 38 38 37 38 38 38 38

Graph


Photos

Conclusion

 * In my experiment i was trying to see if i put helium in a basketball would it bounce higher than a normal basketball with air in it. I hypothesised that the ball with air in it would bounce higher tan the ball with helium in it. I thought this because the mass of air is more than the mass of helium and i thought the ball that fell faster would bounce higher. My conclusion was that the ball with air bounce higher than the ball with helium in it.**

Discussion
In my expirement I was trying to figure out if a basketball with helium in it would bounce higher than a basketball with air in it. The helium basketball actually didn't bounce higher thank the basketball with air. I think this happend because helium is not a dense as air so when the ball would hit the ground it would compress in more than a basketball with air in it would, Plus air has more mass. If I redid this project I would try and get another device to pump the helium on with more pressure because I couldn't really fill the basketball up as much as I could. After doing this experiment I don't fell there is anymore need to experiment with this project because the data clearly showed that the basketball with air bounced higher than the basketball with helium in it.

Benefit to Community and/or Science
This project dosen't have any real beneifit to the community other than its interesting knowledge and Im sure people would like to read about it.

Background Research
Hellium, the lighter of the noble gases, was the first to be discovered. In fact, this element was first identified in the sun rather than in the Earth. In 1868, during a solar eclipse in India, a spectrometer was used for the first time in the study of the chromesphere around the Sun. The chromosphere's spectrum, among other bright stripes, contain the hydrogen characteristic stripes and a yellow one that, at the time, was thought to be corresponding to sodium. The French astronomer Janssen decided to study the origin of that stripe and tried to reproduce the chromosphere's spectrum starting from ordinary light. He succeeded his purpose proving that the yellow stripe did not belong to sodium, but was probably the stripe of a new element. Lockyer and Frankland confirmed Janssen's results and proved that the bright yellow stripe could not have an earthly origin. Frankland proposed the name "helium" after the Greek word "Helios" for Sun. This stripe was later detected in spectrums of many other stars and, in 1882, Palmieri observed it in gases erupting from Vesuvius. The search for this new element in the Earth was not very productive until 1895, when Sir William Rambay examined a gas produced by a Norwegian ore (cleveite) when treated with acids. In this gas spectrum the bright yellow stripe appeared, proving the existence of hellium on Earth. Sir William Ramsay made this discovery after the work of Hillebrand, in 1888, that stated that the boiling of uranitie with diluted sulfuric acid produced considerable amounts of an inert gas. He proved that part of this gas was nitrogen, and since helium was not known at the time, he thought that it was only nitrogen. In a letter to Sir William Ramsay, after the discovery of the element, Hillebrand mentioned that he noticed some strange stripes not present in a pure nitrogen spectrum. He did not take this in to account, but only mentioned it to his assistant, loosing in this way the merit of the discovery. The discovery of helium in radioactive materials was not totally understood until the discovery of radium in 1898. Then, it was verified that helium was a stable product of the radioactive elements desintegration. This led some scientists to conclude that the helium present in Earth had that origin. Some others thought that the origin of helium on Earth was a survival of the "primordial helium". Helium  has a density of 0.1785 kg/m3. The density of dry air at sea level is 1.2929 kg/m3.  Air is denser by 1.1144 kg/m3. That dosent seem like that much but it really is when you are putting it into a balloon the balloon with helium will actually float up and the balloon with air will sink. 

Abstract
I thought about this question because I watched a mythbusters episode and they were seeing if they put Helium in a football could a kicker kick it father than he normally could. I am really into basketball so i modified the question the mythbusters made and decided that if I put helium in a basketball would it make it bounce higher than a normal basketball with air in it. I never thought it would work because helium might make a balloon float but a basketball is a lot heavier than a balloon. The basketball with air actually bounced higher than the ball with helium. There was a 4.9 centimeter difference between the two. After all of the testing I have come to a conclusion than a basketball with air in it will bounce higher than a ball with helium in it.