NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ977817
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jan
Pages: 3
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0031-9120
EISSN: N/A
To Believe the Past or to Trust the Future
Jin, Fengtao; Zhou, Zhaoyan
Physics Education, v47 n1 p58-60 Jan 2012
A small ball rolls down from a quarter-circle to a frictionless plane. What will be the magnitude of the normal force when the ball arrives at the tangent point of the circle and the plane? According to the centripetal force formula, the normal force will be 3 "mg" when the curvature radius of the circle is considered, but will be "mg" instead when the curvature radius of the plane is considered. Which one is the correct answer? The difficulty is that Newton's second law requires the second time derivative of displacement to be continuous; however, this condition is not fulfilled at the tangent point. In this paper we will discuss several possible solutions to this problem in detail. (Contains 3 figures.)
Institute of Physics Publishing. The Public Ledger Building Suite 929, 150 South Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 215-627-0880; Fax: 215-627-0879; e-mail: info@ioppubusa.com; Web site: http://journals.iop.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A