When a ball bounces elastically against a floor, the vertical component (v[subscript y]) of the velocity of the ball's mass-center changes sign. This is a special case of the elastic collision of two balls (i.e., two objects, neither of which is much more massive than the other), in which case the balls' post-collision relative velocity (= v[subscript y1] - v[subscript y2]) is -1 times the balls' pre-collision relative velocity.