Mastering Bottle Bounce with Physics.

Researchers have demonstrated control over the bounce height of a dropped plastic bottle partially filled with water by initially spinning the bottle around a vertical axis, which strongly reduces the bounce height. The rotation forces water up along the walls, which generates a vertical jet in the center that can absorb much of the kinetic energy. The mechanism studied could apply to fluid transport in tank trucks or external fuel tanks of spacecraft, where planners could potentially reduce the effects of impacts by allowing extra volume in the container for fluid motion.