Ball Race#

Two identical balls, Ball A and Ball B are launched with the same initial velocity \(v\) along a pair of tracks. The first track with Ball A, is a straight track. The second track with Ball B, has a “U”-shaped dip in the middle so the ball goes down and then back up.

Ball A is launched along a horizontal track while Ball B is launched along a u-shaped track.

Part 1#

Which ball reaches the end of the track first, if friction is neglected?

Answer Section#

  • It depends on the horizontal location of the U-shaped dip.It is not possible to predict this with 100% certainty.

  • It depends on the height of the dip.

  • They reach the end of the track at the same time.

  • Ball B will reach the end of the track first.

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.