Designing a Ramp for Consistent Ball Rolling: Exploring Formulas and Variables

[Crystal Faye]

Thanks. I looked in my book for the meaning of the equation. The closest that I have came is centripical accerlation. It does not look like the same thing. I can not figure out what the "u" in the equation means.

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[andrevdh]

s is the distance the object travels (in a straight line) [we want the ball to travel 1 meter down the ramp in this case] during the time t [1.8 seconds is the time it must take the ball to travel this distance of 1 meter down the ramp].

u is the object's speed when the timing is started (t = 0 seconds)
[in this case the ball is started out of rest so u = 0 m/s].

and a is the constant acceleration of the ball down the ramp that we can calculate with the given information.

The density of the ball seems to be about $980\ kg/m^3$ which means it should float in water with a little bit of head above the water. Please check that this is the case because I would have thought that it should be a bit heavier.

 

[andrevdh]

Answers to some questions that might have bothered you:

http://www.Newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00124.htm"

http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/torque/Q.torque.inertia.html"

http://www.physics.ucla.edu/demoweb/demomanual/mechanics/kinematics/acceleration_down_an_inclined_plane.html"

 

[Crystal Faye]

I really want to thank you. Our ramp came out very well. We presented it today and I made a 98 percent on it. I know that a 98 percent is not perfect, but I am pleased.

We named ourselves "Team Andrevdh" haha.