4 ms·

I'm no maths/physics geek so I'm just guessing here, but I'd assume that it loses energy at a far more rapid rate and maybe bounces once more and then just roll

I'm no maths/physics geek so I'm just guessing here, but I'd assume that it loses energy at a far more rapid rate and maybe bounces once more and then just rolls along the ground. My reasoning is based on the fact that while the ball absorbs 40% of the energy on the higher bounces there is a minimum amount of energy it absorbs and on the smaller bounces the energy left meets the minimum amount of energy the ball will absorb and then simply stop bouncing. Like i said this is pure conjecture and I may not have even articulated it right.

cperciva 16y ago
Generally things tend to get more elastic at low energies, not less; so I think your 'minimum amount of energy the ball will absorb' hypothesis is wrong. However, in the real world, there are other factors which drain energy from bouncing balls -- air resistance, for example. But this is all irrelevant, since the problem is explicitly in a non-physically-accurate world.