A disc and a solid sphere of the same radius but different masses roll off on two inclined planes of the same altitude and length. Which one of the two objects gets to the bottom of the plane first?
Disk
Sphere
Both reach at the same time
Depends on their masses
The acceleration of a body rolling down an inclined plane without slipping is given by the formula , where is the radius of gyration and is the radius of the body. For a solid sphere, the moment of inertia is , so . For a uniform disc, the moment of inertia is , so . Since is smaller for the solid sphere, its acceleration will be greater than that of the disc (). The object with greater acceleration will take less time to cover the same distance and reach the bottom first. Also, the acceleration is independent of the mass of the rolling body. Therefore, the solid sphere will get to the bottom first.
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