Bouncing ball

Imagine you have a ball and you throw it on the ground. The ball bounces back up to your hand, doesn't it? This is called a bouncing ball.

When you first throw the ball, it has something called 'potential energy'. This is like the energy it has because you've held onto it and you're about to throw it. When the ball is in the air, it also has something called 'kinetic energy' because it's moving. But as soon as it hits the ground, that energy gets transferred into something called 'elastic potential energy'.

This elastic potential energy is what helps the ball bounce back up into the air. It's like the energy stored in a spring that's been squished down. When you let go, the spring bounces back up - and so does the ball!

But the ball doesn't bounce back up to its original height. It usually bounces a little bit lower each time. This is because some of the energy from the bounce gets absorbed by the ground, the air, and the ball itself.

So each time you throw the ball and it bounces, it's actually losing a little bit of energy. Eventually, it will stop bouncing altogether and just rest on the ground. But until then, you can keep having fun bouncing the ball and watching it go up and down!