Distance between 2 points

[alex97]

Just starting on my project. I am wanting to have two clear tubes with some type of ball inside and one tube is slightly angled and one tube has huge drop curve in it. I want to prove that a straight line is not always the fastest distance. Is there any references or help on this site to help me?

[deleted-71417]

Hi

You appear to be studying the solution to the Brachistochrone problem. Here are some references which explain it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachistochrone_curve

http://hom.wikidot.com/the-cycloid

http://web.mit.edu/jasc/Public/thesis.pdf

Unfortunately as far as I can tell Science Buddies has not addressed this very famous math and physics problen directly. The closest Science Buddies project I could find is:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p036.shtml

This is a really cool problem!!!

Have fun with it.

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson