Particle simulation in contact mechanics of a bouncing elastic ball

An elastic ball is simulated by considering lumped mass molecular sets call ed particles. Particles are allowed to interact only locally in a fashion s imilar to that employed in molecular mechanics. Under local and gravity for ces, an n-body problem results when initial data are prescribed. By scaling the forces, the resulting n-body problem is solved numerically using only a scientific personal computer. A variety of examples of bouncing balls are described and discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.