Final answer:
The height of a bouncing ball decreases after each bounce because some of the ball's kinetic energy is lost to other forms such as heat and sound during the collision with the ground, which prevents the ball from reaching its original height on the rebound.
Step-by-step explanation:
The height of a bouncing ball decreases after each bounce due to the loss of kinetic energy during the collision with the ground. When a rubber ball is dropped from a fixed height and bounces, it does not return to its original height because some of its kinetic energy is transformed into other forms of energy, such as heat, sound, and energy absorbed by the deformation of the ball and the floor upon impact. Gravity acts on the ball during its free fall, and the ball has maximum potential energy at the peak of its bounce, which is converted to kinetic energy as it falls. However, due to energy loss, the ball does not regain all its potential energy on the rebound, resulting in a lower bounce height each time.
The process is governed by the conservation of energy principle, which states that energy in a closed system is constant. When the ball hits the ground, some kinetic energy that was used for the ball's upward motion is inevitably lost; thus the ball cannot have enough energy to rise to its initial drop height. The primary force at play during the bouncing of a ball is the electromagnetic force, which causes the ball to bounce back due to the repulsion between the molecular structures of the ball and the ground.