Dynamics of a Bouncing Ball

The dynamics of a bouncing ball undergoing repeated inelastic impacts with a table oscillating vertically in a sinusoidal fashion is studied using Newtonian mechanics and general relativistic mechanics An exact mapping describes the bouncing ball dynamics in each theory We show, contrary to expectation, that the trajectories predicted by Newtonian mechanics and general relativistic mechanics from the same parameters and initial conditions for the ball bouncing at bow speed in a weak gravitational field can rapidly disagree completely The bouncing ball system could be realized experimentally to test which of the two different predicted trajectories is correct