A Ball Rolling Down An Inclined Plane

Before looking at rolling objects let s look at a non rolling object.

A ball rolling down an inclined plane. The bronze ball would roll down the groove and he could track its motion due to gravity. He devised an experiment involving balls rolling down an inclined plane to test this theory. There is a ball rolling down an incline with no slipping. Since the velocities do not depend on the size or mass of the object it s recommended that you first race similar objects.

The inclined plane is 2 meters long and is adjustable up to 20 w r t. If we consider the point of contact between the ball and the inclined plane to be the pivot point for our torque calculations then i have noticed that friction is no longer in play and gravity and normal force is the reason for the torque. A bowling ball and billiard ball race ends in a tie for example. Galileo s experimental apparatus was simple.

Just plug this information into the following equation. The block can only accelerate in the direction along the plane. Generally having a greater mass means that a rolling object such as a ball will have a greater moment of inertia. Suppose that i have some frictionless block on an inclined plane.

You can use the formula with. The figure shows an example of a cart moving down a ramp. Using a water clock galileo measured the time it took for the ball to roll a known distance down the inclined plane. In physics you can calculate the velocity of an object as it moves along an inclined plane as long as you know the object s initial velocity displacement and acceleration.

It consisted of a wooden ramp with a groove cut into it and a bronze ball.