Kit to Study Rolling Motion

Their rolling motion doesn’t occur around the axis which goes through the center of gravity but around the axis that goes through the point of contact with the rolling plane. A rolling body generates two types of energy: translational kinetic energy Et and rotational kinetic energy Er expressed in the following way: Et = m v 2 Er = I0 ω 2 I0 is the inertia moment as regards the axis of the center of gravity, which has a great importance in the energy balance because the way the total kinetic energy distributes into the two forms depends on its value. It is easy and instructive to perform experiments on rolling body dynamics, particularly using RTL techniques and this kit. The energy balance, not considering the losses due to friction is expressed as following: m g h = m v 2 + I0 ω 2 and being I0 = m r 2 e ω 2 = v 2 / r 2 you obtain g h = v 2 and so v = √ 10/7 g h i.e. the final speed is independent of the mass and radius. POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTS: Rolling motion of a sphere on a plane; Rolling motion of a cylinder on a plane; Rolling motion of a cylindrical shell on a plane; Rolling motion of a sphere on a wide-gauge rail; Rolling motion of a sphere on a thin gauge rail; Friction that accelerates; Rolling motion of a reel; Energetic balances.

Supplied Materials:

• 3 Solid cylinders with different diameters and masses
• 3 Cylindrical shells with different diameters and masses
• 3 Spheres with different diameters and masses
• 2 Rails with different gauges
• 1 Rubber plane
• 1 Spool
• 1 Ruler
• 1 Experiment guide

Materials NOT Supplied:

• 1 Distance sensor code 9041 + interface code 9001
• or
• 1 USB distance sensor code 9066