A rubber band ball is a bouncy ball

Bouncy ball

A bouncy ball, power ball or super ball is a popular polybutadiene rubber toy ball which rebounds proportionally to the amount of force used when thrown at a hard surface. The first such ball was the proprietary Super Ball. The Sky Ball is an example of another bouncy ball...

 made by wrapping rubber bands around a core until the desired size is achieved.

Technique

There are many techniques to building a rubber band ball, and styles vary among rubber band ball enthusiasts. The main challenge when building a large rubber band ball is to find increasingly larger bands to accommodate the ball as its circumference grows. When bands big enough to fit around the ball alone cannot be found, it is common for these bands to be chained and wrapped around the ball. The technique of chaining is both accepted and frowned upon in the rubber band ball community, as some say that it adds weight faster than conventional methods. However, when larger bands are not available, or when the ball is being built solely from donated bands, there may be no other options. In either case, as long as it consists of nothing but rubber bands, it is still a rubber band ball.

Another challenge that many face when building rubber band balls is keeping the ball round as it gets bigger.

The main statistic about one's rubber band ball that ball builders measure by is weight, most-likely influenced by the fact that Guinness

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 judges the record by weight alone. Measuring its circumference is another way to measure progress when a scale isn't handy.

Notable rubber band balls

The world's largest rubber band ball was created by Joel Waul. He is the current World Record Holder according to the Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

. The ball, which previously sat under a tarp in Waul's driveway, is 9400 pounds, more than eight-feet tall, and consisting of more than 700,000 rubber bands. It set the world record on November 13, 2008 in Lauderhill, Florida

Lauderhill, Florida

Lauderhill is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 66,887. It is part of the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010 census....

. The ball is now owned by Ripley's Believe it or Not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...

Steve Milton

Steve Milton

Steve Milton was the former world record-holder for having created the largest rubber band ball. Completed in 2006, his creation weighs , is 19 ft in circumference, and contains over 175,000 rubber bands...

 previously held the record for the biggest rubber band ball. During the construction of his rubber band ball, he was sponsored by OfficeMax

OfficeMax

OfficeMax , is an American office supplies retailer that was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.-History:On April 1, 1988, OfficeMax was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Bob Hurwitz and Michael Feuer. Hurwitz served as executive chairman and chief executive officer and Feuer...

, and was sent rubber bands by OfficeMax to use for his ball.

Before Steve Milton, the record was held by John Bain of Delaware. His ball is 3,500 pounds, consisting of over 850,000 rubber bands. The bands were donated by two companies: Alliance Rubber and Textrip/Stretchwell Inc.