Problem 6: Tennis Ball Tower

“Build a tower by stacking tennis balls using three balls per layer and a single ball on top. Investigate the structural limits and the stability of such a tower. How does the situation change when more than three balls per each layer and a suitable number of balls on the top layer are used?

I. Phenomenon Demonstration

Physicist creates remarkable tennis-ball towers, including one made from 46 balls, https://physicsworld.com/a/physicist-creates-remarkable-tennis-ball-pyramids-including-one-made-from-46-balls/

II. Books, Encyclopedia, Discussion and Forum Posts

III. Research Papers

Sissler, Lise & Jones, R & Leaney, Paul & Harland, A.R.. (2010). Viscoelastic Modelling of Tennis Ball Properties. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. 10. 012114. 10.1088/1757-899X/10/1/012114.
Allen, T., Haake, S., Goodwill, S., 2010. Effect of friction on tennis ball impacts. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology 224, 229–236.. doi:10.1243/17543371jset66
Kazachkov, A., & Kireš, M. (2017). A stack of cards rebuilt with calculus. Physics Education, 52(4), 045019. doi:10.1088/1361-6552/aa6a4e
Hall, J. F. (2005). Fun with stacking blocks. American Journal of Physics, 73(12), 1107–1116. doi:10.1119/1.2074007
Thomsen, Kasper Kronborg. “Simulating Object Stacking Using Stack Stability.” Aalborg University . Accessed November 11, 2021. http://projekter.aau.dk/projekter/files/198080087/Full_Report.pdf.
Winkelmann, J., Mughal, A., Weaire, D., & Hutzler, S. (2019). Equilibrium configurations of hard spheres in a cylindrical harmonic potential. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 127(4), 44002. https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/127/44002