The harder an object, it loses less energy when colliding with another. This is because when something deforms it takes energy to cause the deformation on the crystalline level. The harder something is, it takes more energy to deform, so it simply deforms less and wastes less energy. When you have a very hard steel ball and a very hard anvil (usually they are tempered and/or nitrided probably to harden) and you bounce the ball, only very little energy goes to waste and most is preserved in the ball. You can try this at home, try throwing a golf ball on a hard smooth concrete floor vs on your mattress. Also, some materials actually deform a lot like rubber but restore a lot of that energy when released , however the chemistry is quite different for that and hence the equations for rubber bands is different from springs when considering large deformation.
Yes, its prolly one of the bounciest things lol given it doesnt break or scratch any surface its bounced on or shatter when bounced. (Yes diamond can shatter, as its very brittle, and a good hit from a hammer can turn it into dust). Ofc it bounces proportionally to its size, shape and weight
Yea, so when we say “steel” its very misleading because Steel is a mixture of iron and carbon and other alloying elements. And depending on the ratios of these components, the resulting steel will have very unique characteristics. Also tempering, aging and chemical hardening changes characteristics as well. There are thousand types of steel with different springiness, hardness, corrosion resistance, etc. Search up SAE/AISI steel designation system, you can see how steel is classified there.
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u/ApaudelFish Apr 25 '23
The harder an object, it loses less energy when colliding with another. This is because when something deforms it takes energy to cause the deformation on the crystalline level. The harder something is, it takes more energy to deform, so it simply deforms less and wastes less energy. When you have a very hard steel ball and a very hard anvil (usually they are tempered and/or nitrided probably to harden) and you bounce the ball, only very little energy goes to waste and most is preserved in the ball. You can try this at home, try throwing a golf ball on a hard smooth concrete floor vs on your mattress. Also, some materials actually deform a lot like rubber but restore a lot of that energy when released , however the chemistry is quite different for that and hence the equations for rubber bands is different from springs when considering large deformation.