Tumble: Bouncing Balls

Introduction

Kidinu: What's this?

Nabu-rimanni: Just four balls bouncing around.

Kidinu: Did you see that you can stop the motion by moving the cursor off the image?

Nabu-rimanni: So you can. What happens if you click on the image?

Kidinu: Ah, that's interesting. Can you move them, too?

Nabu-rimanni: Right over each other.

Kidinu: Look, you can toss them, too.

Nabu-rimanni: Yep. Let's see how fast I can get them to go.

Kidinu: Whoa, slow it down, will you?

Nabu-rimanni: Hey, where'd that one go? I tossed it right out of the circle.

Kidinu: It's back now.

Nabu-rimanni: What do you think the physics is behind bouncing balls?

Kidinu: I'm sure it can't be too complicated.

David E. Joyce
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610