Referencing this question here of a ball being dropped onto the end of a curved bowl: Velocity of ball sliding on bowl. Need to understand why vertical velocity of bowl is 0 and ball is not
What is the criteria that determines whether the ball bounces upon entry or not? It seems intuitive that if the curved surface was a half-circle such that upon entry the path of the ball follows the tangent of the curve that it would minimize bounce (I am unsure about actually eliminating bounce because maybe it just bounces a small enough amount that it doesn't permanently leave the curved surface), and that any other curve would promote bouncing. But I can't pin down why that would be. A normal force is eventually applied at some point away from the curved surface in both scenarios and the only difference is how abruptly it is applied.
Or is it that non-ideal phenomena responsible for the bounce vs no bounce? The one I have in mind is deformation such that if there was enough deformation from soft materials or from sufficiently high forces which cause the ball to be unable to roll properly so the momentum is directed in a direction other than along the tangent of the curved surface?
It also seems that perhaps in the linked problem, the fact the bowl is on a frictionless table and can slide back and forth might also reduce bouncing but it does not seem to me that this would eliminate bouncing.
