If you were to drop a ball on the moon would it bounce higher than on Earth

If I were to drop a ball from my hands (both from 1.8 metres high on the Moon and Earth) on the moon would it bounce higher than on Earth? Or would the time for it be a longer interval?

Assuming you drop it onto a hard surface, from a rest position, and that the drag from Earth's atmosphere is negligible,

NO it would not bounce higher.

Take a rubber ball and let it bounce on Earth. How high does it bounce back, relative to where you dropped it from?

Well it'll do the exact same thing on the moon.

On the other hand, if you throw it on the moon, you can throw it way higher.

I'm thinking that maybe the rubber ball would not bounce quite so high on the moon as it would on Earth, given the same kind of surface to bounce on. The reason is that during a bounce, some of the kinetic energy of the ball is transformed into heat, and lost from the ball.

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The ball dropped on the moon will have less kinetic energy when it bounces than the ball dropped on Earth does when it bounces. Both balls, upon bouncing, will go through a relatively gushy, soft part of the compression of the rubber where most of the heat loss is generated.

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The ball dropped on Earth will use up a lower fraction of its total kinetic energy while going through this gushy part of the bounce, and it will have a larger fraction of the total kinetic energy left over for the harder, more efficiently reflective part of the bounce.

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So I am thinking that the ball dropped on the moon will not bounce back quite so high up as the ball dropped on Earth will bounce up.

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Yes, the ball would bounce higher (and for a longer interval).


An athlete could also jump much higher... (well, assuming he didn't have to carry a 35 kg suit...)

The time for one bounce would be much much longer on the moon, yes. I don't believe it would 'bounce' any differently in height really, since it is the same ball.