Holy balls!

Why can some balls walk on water while others cannot? We investigate the rebound dynamics of elastic spheres impacting on a free-surface. Several variables determine whether or not a sphere will bounce when impacting a free-surface including velocity, impact angle, size and elasticity. Stiff elastic spheres, such as a racquetball, successfully skip at low impact angles and high velocities, but tend not to bounce when the impact angle becomes too large. However, the more compliant Waboba$^{\textregistered}$ (WAter BOuncing BAll) bounces marvelously even at very high impact angles. Unlike a stiffer ball, the Waboba$^{\textregistered}$ flattens out quickly as it is forming a cavity. The cavity lip forms a ramp and the flattened ball then skips off the water surface. We demonstrate how this phenomenon surprisingly resembles a skipping stone. Using high-speed video we explore the rebound dynamics for various values of elasticity, velocity, angle and size and determine when an object will bounce off the water surface.