Inclined Planes Marble Roll Lab

Experiment with different sizes of marbles.

Inclined planes marble roll lab.

Steel ball bearing or marble wood block stopwatch tape meter stick protractor procedure. Copy the data from the first set of measurements in hypothesis a into the data table for hypothesis b unless you prefer to collect that data a second time. Video of a steel ball rolling down an incline plane with uniform acceleration. Generally having a greater mass means that a rolling object such as a ball will have a greater moment of inertia.

The same principles apply to spheres as well a solid sphere such as a marble should roll faster than a hollow sphere such as an air filled ball regardless of their respective diameters. Divide the ramp s length into six equal parts and mark the six positions on the board with pieces of tape. After many trials he observed that the amount of time it took for the ball to roll down the entire length of the ramp was equal to double the amount of time it took for the same ball to only roll a quarter of the distance. Roll the marble down the longer ramp for increasing amounts of time one second two seconds three seconds etc until the time the marble goes past the end of the ramp.

Using a water clock galileo measured the time it took for the ball to roll a known distance down the inclined plane. Add numbers or letters to the tops of the cups or to the tape at the front of the cups. Average calculated on rolls 2 3 and spare roll. Call out the numbers as marbles roll into the cups.

For many years the effects of mass on objects rolling down an inclined plane have been studied and well known. Raise the top of the ramp to 0 15 m. Starting with the cylinder at rest use the stopwatch to measure the time to roll 1 0 meter down the ramp. The ball is released from different distances up the incline and the time is m.

Another example is a marble teetering at the top of an inclined plane. These positions will be your. Time to roll 1 0 m when h 0 1 m 3. When the rubber band is released and pours out all that energy it had stored up or when the marble begins to fly down the inclined plane that energy is kinetic energy.

Kinetic energy is the energy of an object in motion. Drop a marble or other small ball at the top of the inclined plane and watch it roll down to land in one of the cups.