Does speed of ball rolling down ramp change with surface?

[resdragon]

Does the speed of a ball rolling down a ramp change with a ramp surface and friction?
I am a 6th grader trying to find research information to answer my science fair topic. Please help me find information.

[deleted-2574]

Hi resdragon!

You can submit "Does speed of ball rolling down ramp change with surface?" to answers.com and get a wealth of resources including some results of science projects with ramps and ideas for science projects with ramps.

In using answers.com (or any other search engine), note:

1. subtle wording changes may have a major impact on the result.
2. avoid sites that are just trying to sell you bleep. In answers.com, these are segregated under "sponsored links," but may leak into "web results." This query had only web results.

[deleted-2131]

resdragon,

Very interesting question. It looks like you are really putting some effort into understanding the science behind your project and that's a sign that you have a good project underway.

Friction, in a general sense, is a force that opposes motion. A force is a push or pull. So, if the ball is rolling down the hill then friction is opposing the ball's motion down the hill. So you can think of friction as a force in the opposite direction of the ball's motion. You can find out lots more about friction by looking at a science book (especially a physics text) or by poking around on the web. (see David Kallman's previous post). You might also try looking at an encyclopedia.

The following website (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction) has a good discussion of friction, but it may be a little complicated; don't freak out if you don't understand it. If you decide to read it and have questions, feel free to ask them.

The makeup of the two surfaces in contact has a great affect on the amount of friction. So, the short answer to your question is yes, if you change the surface that the ball rolls down, the ball's speed will change. However, depending on the types of surfaces you are using and how you are measuring speed, the differences in speed may not be large enough for you to detect.


If there is anything else I can do to be of help, please let me know!

[deleted-71588]

This is one of those interesting questions where science and engineering perspectives may differ. From an engineer's perspective, if the effects are small enough that they are extremely difficult to measure to any statistical signficance, it really doesn't matter to the engineer who will gladly ignore the differences. To get an engineer interested in working the problem, the scientist has to reform the question into bleep like "What two kinds of surfaces might exhibit enough difference for the effect to be measurable".

You might want to think about in-elastic materials (hard materials that won't deform) versus elastic materials (softer materials that will deform and return to their original shape).