3rd Annual Bouncy Ball Drop at Science Museum of Western Virginia
The Science Museum of Western Virginia (SMWV) will once again bring mayhem and family fun to downtown Roanoke with its Third Annual Bouncy Ball Drop at noon on Friday, December 31.
The Bouncy Ball event will take place in the atrium of Center in the Square and will feature hundreds of kids of all ages dropping bouncy balls from various landings onto the ground floor level.
“We’re thrilled to continue our tradition of bouncing in the new year with our friends and families,” says Nancy McCrickard, SMWV executive director. “What a fun way to help young people associate science with fun—which is what we’re all about,” she adds.
Last year’s event attracted hundreds of children and their parents who watched more than 11,000 balls drop at the noon countdown. The event has since been viewed by thousands of people on YouTube.
The Bouncy Ball Drop is a play on the world-famous New Year’s Eve ball drop in New York’s Times Square and is free to the public. Children and their parents are invited to arrive at SMWV at 10:30 a.m., where balls will be distributed on a first-come-first-served basis.
The Museum will also offer free admission on December 31 immediately following the ball drop and until 2 p.m. (There will be no Planetarium or Megadome shows.)
The Science Museum of Western Virginia is located on the fourth and fifth floors of Center in the Square, One Market Square, in Roanoke, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more, please visitsmwv.org.
Fun Bouncy Ball Facts
• A chemist invented the original bouncy ball in his spare time.
In 1965 Norman Stingley compressed scraps of synthetic rubber together under 3,500 pounds of pressure per square inch, resulting in a compressed rubber ball with an unexpected resilience.
• More than 7 million bouncy balls were sold in just 6 months after being “launched.”
Wham-O, the company that bought Stingley’s idea and named it SUPERBALL, gave their new product a big market promotion. By Christmas, only 6 months after being introduced, Wham-O, sold 7 million SUPERBALLS at 98 cents each.
• It takes 3,500 pounds of weight to create a single bouncy ball.
The material in the bouncy ball must be compressed under 3,500 pounds of pressure to form correctly.
• A typical bouncy ball can keep around 90 percent of its kinetic energy in one rebound.
In one celebrated incident, a giant Wham-O SUPERBALL, produced as a promotional item, was accidentally dropped out of a 23rd floor hotel window in Australia. It shot back up 15 floors, then down again into a parked convertible car. The car was totaled but the ball survived in perfect condition.