A Ball Rolling Down An Inclined Plane

Since the velocities do not depend on the size or mass of the object it s recommended that you first race similar objects.

A ball rolling down an inclined plane.

Generally having a greater mass means that a rolling object such as a ball will have a greater moment of inertia. 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. It is wide enough 0 4 m to race objects side by side down the hill. The bronze ball would roll down the groove and he could track its motion due to gravity.

Suppose that i have some frictionless block on an inclined plane. 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. He devised an experiment involving balls rolling down an inclined plane to test this theory.

For many years the effects of mass on objects rolling down an inclined plane have been studied and well known. Galileo s experimental apparatus was simple. The figure shows an example of a cart moving down a ramp. After many trials he observed that the amount of time it took for the ball to roll down the entire length of the ramp was equal to double the amount of time it took for the same ball to only roll a quarter of the distance.

The inclined plane is 2 meters long and is adjustable up to 20 w r t. There is a ball rolling down an incline with no slipping. Before looking at rolling objects let s look at a non rolling object. The block can only accelerate in the direction along the plane.

Just plug this information into the following equation.