English

Thump, ring: the sound of a bouncing ball

Popular Physics 2012-05-22 v2 Classical Physics

Abstract

A basketball bounced on a stiff surface produces a characteristic loud thump, followed by high-pitched ringing. Describing the ball as an inextensible but flexible membrane containing compressed air, I formulate an approximate theory of the generation of these sounds and predict their amplitudes and waveforms.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0808.3278,
  title  = {Thump, ring: the sound of a bouncing ball},
  author = {J. I. Katz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0808.3278},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

9 pp., 2 figs. New figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:13:23.286Z