Open AccessSpheres rolling on an inclined track
Author(s) -
Michele D’Anna,
Hans U. Fuchs,
Federico Corni
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
physics education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.343
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1361-6552
pISSN - 0031-9120
DOI - 10.1088/1361-6552/ac015b
Subject(s) - spheres , ball (mathematics) , track (disk drive) , radius , dissipative system , range (aeronautics) , measure (data warehouse) , physics , mechanics , classical mechanics , mathematics , geometry , materials science , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , thermodynamics , computer security , astronomy , database , composite material
A quantitative experiment where we measure the acceleration of spheres of radius R rolling on an inclined U-shaped profile of width 2 D is presented. For a given inclination, we examine the behaviour of four solid spheres having different diameters; in contrast to what is usually assumed to be the case, the experimental findings show that the dissipative component of the ball—track interaction can be neglected only in a limited range of the D / R parameter. We develop two interpretative models which are at the level of advanced high school students. The comparison between model predictions and measurements is quite satisfactory.