Is it true that glass balls bounce higher than rubber balls and if so how exactly?

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Clarification of Question by mihilism-ga on 15 Dec 2005 03:13 PST

Wouldn't the glass ball break as soon as it hit a hard surface?

It depends on the surface you bounce from.

For maximum "Coefficient of Restitution" one surface should be rigid
and the other elastic - e.g. a rubber ball on a metal surface or vice
versa.

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/CoefficientofRestitution.html

You may also be thinking of Acrylic balls, which are used in a type of
juggling called contact juggling.  Acrylic is, of course, plastic, and
the balls bounce VERY well, probably moreso than rubber.  They are
clear and do look like glass.

Yes, from a very hard, rigid surface, glass balls and steel balls will
bounce higher than rubber ones.  The reason is that rubber balls
deform significantly on impact, flattening onto the surface, and then
springing back.  In the process of this squashing, some energy is lost
as heat.  Glass balls lose less energy during contact, because contact
time is much shorter, and deformation is less.  So they bounce higher.

No, unless the glass ball was very large or travelling very fast, it
wouldn't break.  Have you ever seen a broken marble?