We modify a traditional bouncing ball activity for introducing exponential functions by modeling the time between bounces instead of the bounce heights. As a consequence, we can also model the total time of bouncing using an infinite geometric series.

Notes

Students can explore exponential functions by modeling the time between a ball's bounces and then can model the total bounce time using geometric series.

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  • Box, George E. P., and Norman R. Draper. 1987. Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces. New York: Wiley.

  • Erickson, Tim, and Bryan Cooley. 2007. “Bouncing Balls and Energy Loss.” In Den of Inquiry: Data-Rich Labs for Introductory Physics, Volume 2, p. 147. Oakland, CA: eeps Media.

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  • Finzer, William. 2019. Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP). Concord, MA: The Concord Consortium. https://codap.concord.org.

Copyright:
© 2020 by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.
Page Count:
4
Article Category:
Research Article
Received:
07 Mar 2019
Accepted:
17 Sep 2019
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2020
Online Publication Date:
Mar 2020
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