Effect of Impact Surface on the Coefficient of Restitution and Mechanical Energy Loss of a Bouncing Tennis Ball

This study investigates the effect of impact surface on the coefficient of restitution and mechanical energy loss of a bouncing tennis ball. Four surfaces — concrete, ceramic tile, wooden board, and rubber mat — were examined under a controlled experimental procedure. A tennis ball with a mass of approximately 58 g was dropped from an initial height of 1.000 ± 0.005 m, with ten trials conducted on each surface (40 measurements in total). The maximum rebound height was measured directly for each drop, and the coefficient of restitution and percentage mechanical energy loss were calculated from the measured heights. Calculated from the mean rebound height on each surface, the coefficient of restitution was 0.7629 (concrete), 0.7443 (ceramic tile), 0.7046 (wooden board), and 0.6423 (rubber mat), with corresponding calculated mean mechanical energy losses of 41.80%, 44.60%, 50.35%, and 58.75%. A one-way analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference in rebound height among the four surfaces, F(3, 36) = 852.55, p < 0.0001, with a very large effect size (η² = 0.9861). Tukey HSD post-hoc comparisons showed that all six pairwise differences between surfaces were statistically significant (p < 0.0001). These findings provide experimental evidence that impact-surface characteristics significantly influence rebound behaviour and energy dissipation during collision, for the specific ball, surfaces, and drop height examined in this study.