Galileo's ramp with bells sim
The ball starts from rest and speeds up steadily (a = 5/7 g sin 3° = 0.374 m/s² for a rolling ball, g = 10 m/s²), so the distance it has rolled grows
Galileo's ramp with bells · covers the GCSE, IGCSE, O-Level topic
What the sim shows
The ball starts from rest and speeds up steadily (a = 5/7 g sin 3° = 0.374 m/s² for a rolling ball, g = 10 m/s²), so the distance it has rolled grows as the square of the time: d = ½at². In the first 0.5 s it rolls 4.67 cm; by 1.0 s, 4 times as far; by 1.5 s, 9 times; by 2.0 s, 16 times. So bells hung at 1, 4, 9 and 16 of those units ring exactly with the pendulum's ticks. Hung evenly, they ring faster and faster, because the ball is speeding up.
- A bell as it rings
- Below: ticks of the pendulum and rings of the bells
Use it in your lessons
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