Exploration 11.3: Rolling Down an Incline

Please wait for the animation to completely load.

A solid ball of radius 1.0 m rolls down an incline, as shown (position is given in meters and time is given in seconds). The incline makes an angle θ with the horizontal. Adjust the mass (100 g < m < 500 g) and/or the angle (10° < θ < 40°) and watch the graph of gravitational potential energy and rotational and translational kinetic energy vs. time or distance.   Restart.

Change the angle and the mass of the ball to determine the answers to the following questions. 

1. What percent of the initial gravitational potential energy is converted into translational kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill?
2. What percent of the initial gravitational potential energy is converted into rotational kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill?
3. What is the ratio of KE_rot/KE_trans?  What does this number correspond to?
4. How does the ratio of KE_rot/KE_trans depend on the mass of the ball? On the angle of the incline?
5. How would the animation change if the ball were replaced by a disk of the same radius?

Exploration authored by Wolfgang Christian and Mario Belloni.
Script authored by Steve Mellema, Chuck Niederriter, and Mario Belloni.
Instructor's Resource CD Edition: Do not post or distribute.
The complete version of Physlet Physics is available as a text with CD; Physlet Physics can be bundled with this Prentice Hall textbook.
© 2004 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Company