# What's the highest an object has ever bounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904 "2014-04-24T23:13:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/61 "2014-04-30T22:21:18Z")
Right, but as I said before, when it reaches “almost terminal velocity” depends on your standard of “almost”. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/62 "2014-05-01T07:10:23Z")
Isn’t there a theory that a big meteorite impact on Mars can send Martian rock ‘bouncing’ up, up, up to Earth and thereby provide clues to bacteria on the Martian surface? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/63 "2014-05-01T13:24:46Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Bernie Madoff kited and bounced checks with so much verve that the recoil bounced him all the way from Manhattan to North Carolina. I don’t believe Madoff kited a single check. You do that you don’t get to be Madoff. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/64 "2014-05-01T16:52:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **the\_diego** : > > Isn’t there a theory that a big meteorite impact on Mars can send Martian rock ‘bouncing’ up, up, up to Earth and thereby provide clues to bacteria on the Martian surface? That’s certainly happened (as well as similar impacts transporting material between other planets), but it’s debatable whether it should be called a “bounce”. Most of the ejected material comes from the planet, after all, not from the asteroid. One might as well say that a rock bounces when you [spelunk it into a pond](http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2011/10/06#.U2J7gceH3AY), because the water splashes up. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/65 "2014-05-01T17:04:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Right, but as I said before, when it reaches “almost terminal velocity” depends on your standard of “almost”. We can avoid that by saying when it reaches or exceeds it, which happens multiple times when TV varies. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/66 "2014-05-01T19:11:09Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > In cases where terminal velocity is approached quickly, and where it isn’t a constant … well, there’s enough slop there to say “it reaches terminal velocity” under a reasonable definition, and also say “it doesn’t quite reach terminal velocity” under another reasonable definition. (The former being an average TV, the latter being the instantaneous TV.) The following is above my pay grade so please be gentle in your criticisms. …“it doesn’t quite reach terminal velocity” is a reasonable definition as in Newton’s equations are good enough for government work (e.g., getting to the moon). But “it reaches terminal velocity” is the definition of quantum reality or at least our current best understanding just as Einstein’s theory has supplanted Newton’s. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/67 "2014-05-01T20:29:50Z")
JTA: Isn’t that why the arrow reaches its target and the hare catches and passes the tortoise? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/68 "2014-05-01T20:41:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Learjeff** : > > We can avoid that by saying when it reaches or exceeds it, which happens multiple times when TV varies. OK, but that time is unpredictable and essentially random, since the phenomena which cause TV to vary are random. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/69 "2014-05-01T21:05:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, but that time is unpredictable and essentially random, since the phenomena which cause TV to vary are random. No argument. Yeah, it’s “close enough for government work”. My point was simply that you’re absolutely correct on theory, and even in practice, for many cases. But in practice there are many cases where we can say without silly qualifications that TV is reached, such as when I drop a badminton shuttlecock from 100 feet on a sunny day. You’re a scientist; I’m an engineer. You have to be correct, I just have to make things work. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/70 "2014-05-01T21:54:57Z")
If you ask me if a badminton shuttle is at TV after falling 100 feet, I’ll tell you “Yes, for all practical purposes”. If you ask me whether it is at TV after falling an inch, I’ll tell you “No”. But if you ask me where in the middle my answer changes, then I’ll have to grill you for more information on the qualifications. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904/71 "2014-05-01T23:57:04Z")
Our legends tell of a young ball much like yourself who bounced 3 meters in the air. Then he bounced 1.8 meters. Then… he bounced 4 meters. _Do I make myself clear?_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-highest-an-object-has-ever-bounced/686904.md?page=3)