Which will bounce highest - A ball of glass, ball of rubber or A ball of solid steel? And Why?

The ball of solid steel will bounce the highest, then the glass ball and then the rubber ball. Bouncing is a phenomenon where an object strikes a surface with force and imparts energy and when that energy is returned back to the object, it strikes back upward. Now when a rubber ball is thrown at a surface, first it deforms for a bit from the impact. Then its compresses back into its original shape and finally it strikes back upwards.

In process of deforming and compressing back, some of its energy is lost and the surface doesn’t give back the total energy generated during the impact. Whereas when the glass ball strikes the surface (provided it doesn’t break), most of the energy imparted is received back, so the ball bounces higher than the rubber ball. For a steel ball, when it is thrown at a surface, it retains maximum of the collision energy. Though it may deform a little will the impact, but it loses no energy to compresses back into its original shape. With maximum retention of collision energy, it will bounce back to the highest height.