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Physics Lab Report Brendan Booyse

Rolling Ball Experiment

Introduction

If a ball is rolled down a chute, gravitational energy gets translated into movement energy, or
kinetic energy, as well as rotational energy. Rotational energy is the energy that causes the ball
to spin, rolling it down the chute. In addition, a minuet amount of heat engy is also produced.

We can create an experiment to determine kinetic energy ( ) as well as the rotational


energy ( ), and from these 2 values we can also deduce the reduction in potential energy.

The experiment will consist of a ball, rolling down a chute, which will launch from the table,
and land on a piece of carbon paper, in order to see how far the ball has travelled. When doing
the experiment, we should keep in mind that ideally, the horizontal velocity after leaving the
chute will be constant, and the vertical acceleration i.e. gravity, will be equal to 9.8 m . The
length travelled where the ball is in contact with the chute will be measured, as well as the hight
of the ball from the drop in te chute, and the high of the ball from the launch of the chute
towards the floor.

Sketch not to scale

Formulas I might require:

Change of Potential Energy =

Angular Velocity

Apparatus’ needed:

Ball Bearing
Chute
Measuring Stick
Carbon Paper
Blank Paper
Elevated plane (Table)
Pen
String
Tape
Method
The ball bearing we used had a radius of 8mm. We placed the chute on top of the table (elevated
plane, and rolled the ball bearing down the chute in order to get an estimate of where it landed.
At the estimated landing spot, we taped blank paper down on top of Carbon Paper, so that the
spot is marked where the ball would land after each time. We measured the height of the table
to the takeoff of the ball from the floor, as well as the height from the table top towards the
launch of the ball at the top of the chute. Using the string, we measured the run way of the
chute. We also measured the horizontal distance from the takeoff of the ball, to the landing.

The measurements where as followed:

Floor to takeoff = 0.76 m with a 0.005m uncertainty


Floor to launch= 0.95m with a 0.005m uncertainty
Vertical distance from take off to edge of paper = 0.42m with a 0.005m uncertainty
Marks from edge of paper = 13.5 cm with a 0.005m uncertainty
Distance from takeoff to marks on paper = 0.555m with a 0.0025m uncertainty
Chute runway distance = 28.5 cm with a 0.05 cm uncertainty

Additionally the weight of the Ball was measured at 16.7 g with a 0.05g uncertainty

Finally we rolled the ball down the chute, for a total of 25 times. The marks on paper where all
on nearly the same area, with exception to 3 rolls, that landed approximately 3 cm away from
the landing of the other runs. We excluded these roll’s as anomalies, and only used the closely
related landings.

Using our measurements we came up with the following results:

The reduction in Potential energy caused by the ball rolling down the Chute = 31.1 x 10-3 Joules

The kinetic energy of the ball as it leaves the chute ( ) = 19.8 x 10-3 Joules

The rotational energy of the ball as it leaves the chute ( ) = 7.9 x 10-3 Joules

The heat energy produced from friction (subtraction of kinetic/rotational energy from potential
energy) = 3.4 x 10-3 Joules

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