{{Short description|Bouncy ball made by Wham-O}} {{About|the toy manufactured by Wham-O|other highly resilient balls|bouncy ball|the championship game|Super Bowl|the Super Mario power up|Super Mario Land#Gameplay}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} [[File:Glitter Super Ball.jpg|thumb|A Super Ball containing particles of glitter, resting on a bespoke base. The translucent rubber has yellowed with age.]]

A '''Super Ball''' or '''Superball''' is a [[toy]] [[bouncy ball]] based on a type of [[synthetic rubber]] invented in 1964 by chemist [[Norman Stingley]]. It is an extremely [[Elasticity (physics)|elastic]] [[ball]] made of Zectron,<ref name="afads" /> which contains the [[synthetic polymer]] [[polybutadiene]] as well as [[hydrated silica]], [[zinc oxide]], [[stearic acid]], and other ingredients.<ref name="sci&golf"/> This compound is [[vulcanization|vulcanized]] with [[sulfur]] at a temperature of {{convert|165|C}} and formed at a pressure of {{convert|3500|psi|MPa|abbr=on}}. The resulting Super Ball has a very high [[coefficient of restitution]],<ref name="cross1"/><ref name="MacInnes1"/><ref name="basics of phys"/> and if dropped from shoulder level on a hard surface, a Super Ball bounces nearly all the way back; thrown down onto a hard surface by an average adult, it can fly over a three-story building.

==History== [[File:Black Super Ball.jpg|thumb|left|A branded Wham-O Super Ball from 2001]]

Stingley sought uses for his [[polybutadiene]] synthetic rubber, as well as someone to manufacture it. He first offered his invention to the Bettis Rubber Company, for whom he worked at the time,<ref>{{Cite web |title=SuperBall History - Invention of the SuperBall |url=http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/superball.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526184044/http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/superball.htm |archive-date=2019-05-26 |access-date=2005-05-18 |website=The Great Idea Finder}}</ref> but they turned it down because the material was not very durable.<ref>Wham-O Super Book Celebrating 63 Years Inside the Fun Factory By Tim Walsh {{ISBN|978-0-8118-6445-9}}</ref> So Stingley took it to toy company [[Wham-O]]; they worked on developing a more durable version which they still manufacture today.<ref name="toys-amaz"/><ref name="bg-toy story"/>

"It took us nearly two years to iron the kinks out of Super Ball before we produced it," said [[Richard Knerr]], President of Wham-O in 1966.<ref name="pop sci-invent" /> "It always had that marvelous springiness.... But it had a tendency to fly apart. We've licked that with a very high-pressure technique for forming it. Now we're selling millions."<ref name="pop sci-invent" />

Super Ball became a [[fad]] when it was introduced.<ref name="kallen-ae"/> Peak production reached over 170,000 Super Balls per day.<ref name="rielly-60s"/> By December 1965, over six million had been sold, and U.S. presidential adviser [[McGeorge Bundy]] had five dozen shipped to the [[White House]] for the amusement of the staff.<ref name="afads"/><ref name="rielly-60s" /><ref name="life-boom"/><ref name="f&mf"/> Wham-O executive vice-president Richard P. Knerr knew that fads are short-lived. "Each Super Ball bounce is 92% as high as the last," he once said. "If our sales don't come down any faster than that, we've got it made."<ref name="f&mf" /> Initially, the full-sized Super Ball sold for 98¢ at retail, {{Inflation|US|.98|1965|fmt=eq|r=2}}; by the end of 1966, its colorful miniature versions sold for as little as 10¢—{{Inflation|US|.10|1966|fmt=eq|r=2}}—in vending machines.<ref name="bb-calif happy"/> In the late 1960s, Wham-O made a giant Super Ball roughly the size of a bowling ball as a promotional stunt.<ref name="toys-amaz"/><ref name="bg-toy story"/> It fell from the 23rd story window (some reports say the roof) of an Australian hotel and destroyed a parked convertible car on the second bounce.<ref name="toys-amaz"/><ref name="bg-toy story"/>

Composer [[Alcides Lanza]] purchased several Super Balls in 1965 as toys for his son, but soon he started experimenting with the sounds that they made when rubbed along the strings of a piano.<ref name="lanza1" /> This resulted in his composition ''Plectros III'' (1971), in which he specifies that the performer should use a pair of Super Balls on sticks as mallets with which to [[string piano|strike and rub the strings]] and case of a piano.<ref name="lanza1"/>

[[Lamar Hunt]], founder of the [[American Football League]] (AFL) and owner of the [[Kansas City Chiefs]], watched his children play with a Super Ball and then coined the term [[Super Bowl]]. He wrote a letter to [[National Football League]] (NFL) commissioner [[Pete Rozelle]] dated July 25, 1966: "I have kiddingly called it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon." The league's franchise owners had decided on the name ''AFL–NFL World Championship Game'', but the media immediately picked up on Hunt's ''Super Bowl'' name, which became official beginning with the [[Super Bowl III|third annual game in 1969]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Origin of the term "Super Bowl"|url=https://static.www.nfl.com/image/upload/league/apps/league-site/media-guides/2023/KC.pdf#page=428|publisher=NFL Enterprises, LLC|work=2023 Kansas City Chiefs Media Guide|access-date=May 6, 2024}}</ref><ref name="toys-amaz" /><ref>MacCambridge, Michael. ''America's Game''. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 237.</ref><ref name="huppke-lotb"/>

==Physical properties== {{Main|Physics of a bouncing ball}}

According to one study, "If a pen is stuck in a hard rubber ball and dropped from a certain height, the pen may bounce to several times that height."<ref name="harter1"/> If a Super Ball is dropped without spin onto a hard surface, with a small ball bearing on top of the Super Ball, the bearing rebounds to a great height.<ref name="browne"/>

High school physics teachers use Super Balls to educate students on usual and unusual models of impacts.<ref name="nonsmooth"/>

The "rough" nature of a Super Ball makes its impact characteristics different from those of otherwise similar smooth balls.<ref name="Garwin1"/><ref name="dynsb"/> The resulting behavior is quite complex.<ref name="dynsb"/> The Super Ball has been used as an illustration of the principle of [[T-symmetry|time reversal invariance]].<ref name="Crawford1"/>

A Super Ball is observed to reverse the direction of spin on each bounce.<ref name="bridges1"/><ref name="aston1"/><ref name="cup-im"/> This effect depends on the tangential compliance and frictional effect in the collision. It cannot be explained by rigid body impact theory, and would not occur were the ball perfectly rigid.<ref name="cup-im" /> Tangential compliance is the degree to which one body clings to rather than slips over another at the point of impact.<ref name="cup-im2"/>

==Patent== * [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=3241834 Stingley, Norman H. &ndash; "Highly Resilient Polybutadiene Ball"]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728194729/http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=3241834 |date=2017-07-28 }}

==See also== * ''[[The Absent-Minded Professor]]'' * [[Happy Fun Ball]]

== References == {{Reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="sci&golf">{{cite book|last1=Farrally|first1=Martin R|first2=Alastair J. |last2=Cochran|title=Science and golf III: proceedings of the 1998 World Scientific Congress of Golf|publisher=Human Kinetics |year=1998|pages=407, 408|isbn=0-7360-0020-8}}</ref> <ref name="pop sci-invent">{{cite journal|last=Griswald|first=Wesley S.|date=January 1966|title=Can You Invent a Million-Dollar Fad?|journal=Popular Science|volume=188|issue=1|pages=78–81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mikDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Can+You+Invent+a+Million-Dollar+Fad%3F%22+popular+science&pg=PA78}}</ref> <ref name="toys-amaz">{{cite book|last=Wulffson|first=Don L|author2=Laurie Keller|title=Toys!: Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions|publisher=Henry Holt and Co|date=2000|pages=[https://archive.org/details/toysamazingstori00wulf/page/92 92–94]|isbn=0-8050-6196-7|url=https://archive.org/details/toysamazingstori00wulf/page/92}}</ref> <ref name="bg-toy story">{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/08/21/toy_story/?page=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604040632/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/08/21/toy_story/?page=2|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 4, 2011|title=Toy story|last=Weiss |first=Joanna |date=August 21, 2005|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=2 February 2010}} </ref> <ref name="cross1">{{cite journal|last=Cross|first=Rod |date=May 2002 |title=Measurements of the horizontal coefficient of restitution for a superball and a tennis ball|journal=[[American Journal of Physics]]|volume=70|issue=5|pages=482–489 |doi=10.1119/1.1450571|url=http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=AJPIAS000070000005000482000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=no|access-date=1 February 2010|publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers|bibcode=2002AmJPh..70..482C |url-access=subscription}}</ref> <ref name="MacInnes1">{{cite journal|last=MacInnes|first=Iain |date=May 2007|title=Debouncing a Superball|journal=The Physics Teacher|publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers|volume=45|issue=5|pages=304–305|quote=For bounces on a wooden bench top, the coefficient of restitution,....is typically about e = 0.8.|doi=10.1119/1.2731280|bibcode=2007PhTea..45..304M }}</ref> <ref name="basics of phys">{{cite book|last=Myers|first=Rusty L.|title=The Basics of Physics |publisher=Greenwood |date=2005|page=304|isbn=0-313-32857-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnynjL44pI4C&q=Superball&pg=PA304|access-date=5 February 2010 |quote=...on a hard surface...0.85 for a superball}}</ref> <ref name="bb-calif happy">{{cite magazine|date=December 31, 1966|title=California Happy but Wants New Winners|magazine=Billboard|pages=43, 44}}</ref> <ref name="harter1">{{cite journal|last=Harter|first=William G. |date=June 1971|title=Velocity Amplification in Collision Experiments Involving Superballs|journal=[[American Journal of Physics]]|volume=39|issue=6|pages=656–663 |doi=10.1119/1.1986253|url=http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=AJPIAS000039000006000656000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=no|access-date=1 February 2010|publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers|bibcode=1971AmJPh..39..656H |url-access=subscription}}</ref> <ref name="browne">{{cite book|last=Browne|first=Michael E.|title=Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of physics for Engineering and Science |publisher=McGraw-Hill|date=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/schaumsoutlineof00brow/page/118 118]–119|chapter=9: Linear Momentum and Collisions |isbn=0-07-008498-X|url=https://archive.org/details/schaumsoutlineof00brow|url-access=registration|quote=Superball.|access-date=5 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="Garwin1">{{cite journal|last=Garwin|first=Richard L.|title=Kinematics of an Ultraelastic Rough Ball|journal=[[American Journal of Physics]]|year=1969|publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers|volume=37|issue=1|pages=88–92|url=http://www.rpi.edu/dept/phys/courses/PHYS1150/GarwinSuperBall.pdf|access-date=1 February 2010|quote=A Rough ball which conserves kinetic energy exhibits unexpected behavior after a single bounce and bizarre behavior after three bounces against parallel surfaces. The Wham-O Super-Ball...appears to approximate this behavior...quite different from that of a...smooth ball|doi=10.1119/1.1975420|bibcode=1969AmJPh..37...88G}}</ref> <ref name="dynsb">{{cite book|last=Coatta|first=Dan |author2=Bram Lambrecht |title=Dynamics of a Super Ball: How Reversible Tangential Impacts Make for an Entertaining Toy |date=2004|pages=1|url=http://www.me.berkeley.edu/ME170/Bram/bram_superball_paper.pdf|access-date=1 February 2010|quote=Super balls are simple toys that exhibit surprisingly complex behavior. Part of the fun of a super ball is a result of the high friction between the rubber of the ball and the surface it bounces against. This friction places moments on the ball that cause it to spin after bouncing. The exchange of energy between rotational and translational forms that occurs at each collision makes the super ball’s behavior difficult to predict.}}</ref> <ref name="Crawford1">{{cite journal|last=Crawford|first=Frank S. |date=September 1982|title=Superball and time-reversal invariance|journal=[[American Journal of Physics]]|publisher=American Association of Physics Teachers|volume=50|issue=9|pages=856|doi=10.1119/1.12756|bibcode=1982AmJPh..50..856C }}</ref> <ref name="bridges1">{{cite journal|last=Bridges|first=Richard |date=December 1991|title=The spin of a bouncing 'superball'|journal=[[Physics Education]]|volume=26|issue=6|pages=350–354 |url=http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0031-9120/26/6/003|access-date=1 February 2010|quote=Strobe photographs of a spinning, bouncing `superball' are analysed to determine whether observed reversals of spin during bouncing fit a model analogous to Newton's experimental law of restitution. Rough, but imperfect agreement is found. |doi=10.1088/0031-9120/26/6/003|bibcode=1991PhyEd..26..350B |s2cid=250757604 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> <ref name="aston1">{{cite journal|last=Aston|first=Philip J.|author2=R Shail |date=October 11, 2007|title=The Dynamics of a Bouncing Superball With Spin|journal=Dynamical Systems|volume=22|issue=3|pages=291–322|doi=10.1080/14689360701198142|s2cid=16096366|url=http://personal.maths.surrey.ac.uk/st/P.Aston/Papers/bouncing_ball1.pdf|access-date=1 February 2010|quote=When a superball is thrown forwards but with backspin, it is observed to reverse both direction and spin for a few bounces before settling to bouncing motion in one direction.}}</ref> <ref name="cup-im">{{cite book|last=Stronge|first=W. J. |title=Impact Mechanics |publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2004|page=112|isbn=0-521-60289-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHgcS0bfZ28C&q=Superball&pg=PA112|access-date=4 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="cup-im2">{{cite book|last=Stronge|first=W. J. |title=Impact Mechanics |publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2004|pages=94–95|isbn=0-521-60289-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHgcS0bfZ28C&q=Superball&pg=PA112|access-date=4 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="nonsmooth">{{cite book|last=Brogliato|first=Bernard |title=Nonsmooth Mechanics: Models, Dynamics, and Control |publisher=Springer |date=1999 |pages=153 |isbn=1-85233-143-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qKCdH7HklEwC&q=Superball&pg=PA153|access-date=5 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="kallen-ae">{{cite book|last=Kallen|first=Stuart A.|title=Arts and Entertainment|publisher=Lucent|date= 2004|series=Lucent Library of Historical Eras&nbsp;– The 1960s|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lucentlibraryofh00stua/page/84 84]|isbn=1-59018-388-6|url=https://archive.org/details/lucentlibraryofh00stua/page/84}}</ref> <ref name="rielly-60s">{{cite book|last=Rielly|first=Edward J. |title=The 1960s |publisher=Greenwood|date=2003|pages=108|chapter=Leisure Activities|isbn=0-313-31261-3|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3hAR5c9QFcC&q=super+ball&pg=PA108|access-date=5 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="life-boom">{{cite magazine|date=December 3, 1965|title=A Boom with a Bounce: The U.S. is Having a Ball|magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]]|publisher=Time, Inc|volume=59|issue=23|pages=69, 74|issn=0024-3019|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUwEAAAAMBAJ&q=Super+Ball&pg=PA69|access-date=4 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="afads">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Richard Alan|title=American Fads|publisher=William Morrow & Co|date=1985|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanfads00john/page/81 81–83]|isbn=0-688-04903-6|url=https://archive.org/details/americanfads00john/page/81|access-date=4 February 2010}}</ref> <ref name="f&mf">{{cite book|last=Hoffmann|first=Frank W.|author2=William G. Bailey|title=Fashion & Merchandising Fads|publisher=Routledge|date=1994|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fashionmerchandi00hoff/page/243 243–244]|isbn=1-56024-376-7|url=https://archive.org/details/fashionmerchandi00hoff/page/243}}</ref> <ref name="lanza1">{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Pamela |title=Alcides Lanza: Portrait of a Composer |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|date=2007|pages=131|isbn=978-0-7735-3264-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GO1U-jH-4Z4C&q=Superball&pg=PA131}}</ref> <ref name="huppke-lotb">{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-0701300052jan30,1,233400.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true |title=Legends of the Bowl |access-date=2007-01-31 |author=Rex W. Huppke |date=2007-01-30 |publisher=Chicago Tribune |quote=Lamar Hunt, who died in December, coined the term Super Bowl in the late 1960s after watching his kids play with a Super Ball, the bouncy creation of iconic toy manufacturer Wham-O. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070202183127/http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-0701300052jan30,1,233400.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true |archive-date=2007-02-02 }}</ref> }}

==External links== * [https://wham-o.com/Selections/superball/ Superball – Wham-O]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514175046/https://wham-o.com/Selections/superball/ |date=May 14, 2020}}

{{Kansas City Chiefs}} {{Super Bowl}}

[[Category:Balls]] [[Category:Kansas City Chiefs]] [[Category:Physical activity and dexterity toys]] [[Category:Products introduced in 1965]] [[Category:Rubber toys]] [[Category:Super Bowl|-]] [[Category:Wham-O brands]]