In your example the ball will not rebound all that well.. I do know how to make it rebound but it won't do that well.
Now if you took one of those SUPER BALLS from back when.. the 70s (give or take a decade) instead of the ball bearing,, You'd be right.
WHY.. Elasticity, you said it,, the hard table and the ball bearing are not eleastic, thus when they hit the energy is converted to heat and dissapated
If you hit an elastic surfact it rebounds.
Alternative method would be to put a spring at the bottom of the tube. (Pick carefully) do this and your demo will work well.
But you need something springy (Elastic) so it can deform and return to it's original shape firing that ball back up the tube, Either the Ball or the table.
I just confirmed with Wikipedia but my degree is in science (I have both a degree and a certificate in electroincs) and I still remember why the air table had wire around the sides (so the pucks would bounce when we did that expierment)
Oh. a hard ball on a a hard surface will bounce back, but not very far. Try it.
