Coefficient of rolling friction - Lab experiment

Leonid Minkin, and Daniel Sikes

Citation: American Journal of Physics 86, 77 (2018); doi: 10.1119/1.5011957

View online: https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5011957
View Table of Contents: https://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/86/1
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS

Coefficient of rolling friction - Lab experiment

Leonid Minkin and Daniel Sikes
Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon 97219
(Received 18 November 2016; accepted 1 November 2017)
https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5011957

With rare exception,1–3 the force of friction on a rolling shows typical graphs of the ball’s position and velocity versus
object is not usually a topic discussed in introductory physics time. Because the track curvature is small, the motion of the
textbooks. Although the invention of the wheel is one of the ball can be approximated as one-dimensional with a constant
essential world achievements, rolling friction is typically normal force (N ¼ mg). Indeed, on the wood track, which has a
ignored and the inability of students to explain or model the radius of curvature of 0.57 m, the ball’s largest displacement
deceleration of a rolling rigid object on a rigid horizontal from the equilibrium position (0.15 m, see Fig. 2) results in a
surface necessitates a mechanism for this phenomenon. normal force that differs from mg by only 3%
(Detailed analyses of this mechanism and measurements of [N ¼ mg cos ð0:15=0:57Þ ¼ 0:97 mg]. From Fig. 2, one can
the coefficient of rolling friction can be found in Refs. 4–6.) see that these oscillations are damped with a linearly modu-
Every introductory physics textbook discusses kinetic and lated amplitude; this confirms the assumption that the force of
static friction and many papers are devoted to teaching these rolling friction is constant and does not depend on the speed of
forces,7 but it is well known that measuring static and kinetic the ball14,15 in this experiment.
friction in educational labs is troublesome.8,9 To make mat- Assuming the ball rolls without sliding, a rolling friction
ters worse, the coefficient of rolling friction is much smaller force and the force of gravity are the only forces responsible
than the coefficient of kinetic friction,1–5 so student measure- for the change in kinetic energy K.10 By choosing initial and
ments of rolling friction are even more troublesome. In addi- final positions of the ball at the bottom of the concave track
tion, the usual measurements of time (about 1 s) and distance (perhaps after many oscillations) and applying the work-
traveled (less than 1 m) are comparatively small, which kinetic energy theorem, one can confirm that the ball’s
makes surface uniformities and accurate leveling (or measur- change in kinetic energy equals the work done only by the
ing the angle of incline) of the track critical factors that influ- force of rolling friction.10 The kinetic energy of a solid
ence the uncertainty of the measurements. To counter these
difficulties, a method of measuring the coefficients of rolling
friction based on the oscillations of steel balls on a large con-
cave lens was proposed in Ref. 4. This method is free from
the above-named deficiencies.
In this note, a ball oscillating on a concave trackway is
used to find the coefficient of rolling friction lr using typical
laboratory equipment. This simple experiment can be carried
out by students and the results are highly reliable. It is known
that a variety of factors can influence friction forces, includ-
ing adhesion, deformation, elastic hysteresis, abrasion, the
effect of impurities, etc.7 However, the nature of rolling fric-
tion is not the subject of this paper. Instead, we use a phe-
nomenological approach that presumes the magnitude of the
rolling friction force fr is proportional to the normal force N
and has a direction opposite to the motion2,10

fr ¼ lr N; (1)

where lr is assumed to be constant (independent of velocity).

In this case the only dissipative force that causes the change
of mechanical energy (kinetic plus potential energies) is the
force of rolling friction.10 The assumption of Eq. (1) should
be considered an initial, but commonly used, approximation;
deviations of this formula have been observed.11
A steel ball of diameter of 3.90 cm and mass m ¼ 225 g was
used as the rolling object. A manufactured wood track (a so-
called stringless pendulum12) and a plastic ruler with a central
groove were utilized as concave tracks (see Fig. 1). The ball
was released near the bottom of the track and its (oscillatory)
position was measured using a PASCO13 motion sensor. Figure 2 Fig. 1. Concave tracks made from (a) wood (Ref. 12) and (b) a plastic ruler.

77 Am. J. Phys. 86 (1), January 2018 http://aapt.org/ajp C 2018 American Association of Physics Teachers
V 77
 interface software allows us to compute the (positive) area
under the velocity curve, which gives the total distance trav-
eled by the ball, s ¼ 3.8 m. Substituting these values into Eq.
(4) gives lr ¼ 2:0  103 . Using the same procedure, the
coefficient of rolling friction for the steel ball on the plastic
ruler is found to be lr ¼ 0:75  103 .
Alternatively, s can be found as the sum of the ball’s oscil-
lation distances. For linearly modulated amplitudes, the
amplitudes represent
an arithmetic progression and therefore
s ¼ 2ðAi þ Af ÞDt=T , where Ai and Af are initial and final
amplitudes, T is the period of oscillations, and Dt ¼ tf – ti is
the time interval. For example, for ball oscillations on the
wood track (Fig. 2), Ai ¼ 0.15 m, Af ¼ 0, ti ¼ 1 s, tf ¼ 33 s, and
T ¼ 2.7 s, leading to s ¼ 3.6 m. This method results in a 5%
difference with the computation made by calculating areas
under the graph of velocity versus time.
The proposed method of measuring the coefficient of roll-
ing friction can be utilized using a plastic ruler and standard
physics equipment12 (the 2D collision16 apparatuses can also
be exploited as an aluminum concave track). This method is
easy to implement, requires little time, and it allows students
to explore the dependence of lr on the ball’s diameter and
the ball and track materials. Moreover, this lab integrates dif-
ferent topics in introductory physics including: kinematic
relations (differential and integral) between velocity, dis-
placement, and distance traveled; the work-kinetic energy
theorem; and damped oscillations that are linearly modu-
lated. We believe such a lab would be a good learning expe-
Fig. 2. Position and velocity of the ball as a function of time on the concave rience for introductory students.
wood track.
1
H. D. Young and R. A. Freedman, University Physics, 13th ed. (Pearson,
sphere rolling on a flat surface is the sum of the translational Boston, MA, 2014).
2
D. M. Katz, Physics for Scientists and Engineers; Foundations and
Kt and rotational Kr (with respect of the center of mass) Connections, 1st ed. (Cengage Learning, Boston, MA, 2015).
kinetic energies. Assuming the ball is in contact with the bot- 3
R. D. Knight, Physics for Scientists and Engineers: A Strategic Approach,
tom (rather than the edges) of the track, the total kinetic 3rd ed. (Pearson, Boston, MA, 2013).
energy is then2 4
R. Cross, “Coulomb’s law for rolling friction,” Am. J. Phys. 84(3),
221–230 (2016).
5
1 1 7 C. E. Mungan, “Rolling friction on a wheeled laboratory cart,” Phys.
K ¼ Kt þ Kr ¼ mv2 þ mv2 ¼ mv2 ; (2) Educ. 47(3), 288–292 (2012).
2 5 10 6
R. F. Larson, “Measuring the coefficient of friction of a low-friction cart,”
Phys. Teach. 36, 464–465 (1998).
where v is the speed of the ball’s center of mass. Meanwhile, 7
U. Besson, L. Borghi, A. De. Ambrosis, and P. Mascheretti, “How to teach
the work done by the force of rolling friction is friction: Experiments and models,” Am. J. Phys. 75(12), 1106–1113
(2007).
W ¼ lr mgs; (3) 8
C. Gaffney and A. Catching, “Magnetic viscous drag for friction labs,”
Phys. Teach. 54, 335–337 (2016).
9
where s is the total distance travelled by the ball. Equating T. M. Lawlor, “Being careful with PASCO’s kinetic friction experiment:
the work done to the change in kinetic energy then allows us Uncovering pre-sliding displacement?,” Phys. Teach. 46, 432–434 (2008).
10
A. Domenech, T. Domenech, and J. Cebrian, “Introduction to the study of
to find the coefficient of rolling friction as
rolling friction,” Am. J. Phys. 35, 231–235 (1987).
  11
F. P. Bowden and D. Talor, The Friction and Lubrication of Solids, Part II
2 2
7 vi  vf 12
(Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, 1964).
lr ¼ : (4) The wood track we used is part of a magnetic accelerator apparatus can be
10 gs determined at <http://www.arborsci.com/magnetic-accelerator>.
13
For example of student lab equipment see vendor webpage <https://
The motion sensor data allows us to determine the ball’s www.pasco.com/products/>.
14
velocity at any point in time and to compute the total dis- M. I. Molima, “Exponential versus linear amplitude decay in damped
tance traveled by the ball. For example, using Fig. 2, let us oscillators,” Phys. Teach. 42, 485–487 (2004).
15
A. Marchewka, D. S. Abbott, and R. J. Beichner, “Oscillator damped by a
choose an initial time of ti ¼ 1 s (the ball is at the bottom of constant-magnitude friction force,” Am. J. Phys. 72(4), 477–483 (2004).
the track with vi ¼ –0.33 m/s) and a final time of tf ¼ 33 s (the 16
An example of a curved metal track comes from the 2D collision apparatus
ball is again at the bottom of the track with vf ¼ 0) for oscil- can be determined at <http://shop.sciencefirst.com/mechanics/7423-colli-
lations of the ball on the wood track. The PASCO software sion-in-2d.html>.

78 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 86, No. 1, January 2018 Notes and Discussions 78