Dianna “The Physics Girl” Cowern explains the science behind why a golf ball placed on a bouncy ball placed on a basketball bounces really high when all three are dropped at the same time. The answer relates to the science behind a supernova explosion.
What we just did is analogous to the process that occurs during the explosion of a super nova. Just as our more massive basketball transfers momentum to the smaller balls, energy from the dense core of the super nova is transferred in a shockwave that moves through the star to the less dense layers.
