Anya lifts a ball high above her head and drops it. the ball bounces up and down. she observes that the ball loses height every time it bounces. how can this situation be explained? some of the ball’s energy changes to thermal energy when it hits the ground. the ball loses some of its energy to the force of gravity. there’s no air resistance (drag) on the ball. the mass of the ball changes with each bounce.

The first one.

Explanation: As the ball falls, there are some forcers acting on it:

The air resistance is one of the factors that will affect the ball movement.

When the ball impacts on the ground, it transfers some of the energy to the ground, wich also affects the height of the ball when it bounces.

There is also a tiny bit of energy that is turned into heat, this is primarly by the friction with the air, but there is also a little bit transformed when it bounces.

The force of gravity also is a factor here, as the ball is closer to earth, the force is stronger, then is harder for the ball to bounce as high as it initally was.

The primarly factors are the first two, and for the given options i would say that the best explanation is the first one.

magnitude and direction