Solution

Let’s introduce a coordinate system whose x axis is in the same di-

rection as the speed of the conveyor belt, and whose y axis is in the
direction of the ball’s initial speed (figure). When the ball arrives on
the conveyor belt, the velocity component of its center of mass in the
x direction is zero, and its velocity in the y direction is the initial value
v0 :
vx (t = 0) = 0, vy (t = 0) = v0 .
The ball initially rotates only around the axis parallel to the x direc-
tion, so the y component of the angular velocity vector is zero:

ωy (t = 0) = 0.

When the ball reaches the conveyor belt, the sliding friction force of
constant magnitude S starts to act in the same direction as the speed
of the conveyor belt. During further movement, the direction of the

1
frictional force will always be opposite to the (relative) speed of the
lowest point of the ball compared to the conveyor belt. The sliding
friction force initially accelerates the center of mass of the m ball in
the x direction, so its acceleration:
S
a= .
m
Since the force S has a torque with respect to the center of mass, the
ball with radius R begins to rotate with an angular acceleration β
around the axis parallel to the y direction in the direction shown in
fig. The dynamic equation of the rotary motion:
2
SR = mR2 β,
5
where we used that the moment of inertia of the ball is 2mR2 /5. The
angular acceleration of the ball can be determined from this:
5S
β= .
2mR
It can be seen that the friction force only changes the x component
of the velocity and the y component of the angular velocity vector, it
has no effect on the velocity component of the center of mass in the
y direction and the rotational motion around the axis parallel to the
x axis. It follows that the relative velocity of the ball’s lowest point
relative to the conveyor belt remains in the −x direction throughout.
That is, the sliding friction force acting on the ball has not only a
constant magnitude, but also a constant direction!

Calculated from the time t = 0 of the ball’s arrival on the rubber

strip, it can be determined how the velocity of the center of mass vx (t)
and the angular velocity ωy (t) depend on time:
vx (t) = at, ωy (t) = βt.

2
During the sideways sliding of the ball, vx (t) and ωy (t) increase uni-
formly until the ball is completely rolling. We can speak of pure rolling
if the velocity measured in the rest coordinate system of the point of
contact of the ball with the conveyor belt is the same as the velocity
V of the conveyor belt. Mathematically stated:

vx (τ ) + ωy (τ )R = V,

where τ denotes the moment of pure rolling. From the above equation
and the previous results for angular acceleration, τ can be expressed:
2mV
τ= .
7S
The assignment of the task states that the friction coefficient (and
therefore also S) is very large, so τ is a short duration. In other words,
pure rolling starts much sooner than the time it takes for the ball to
move to the other side of the conveyor belt. From the onset of pure
rolling, the component of the ball’s center of mass in the x direction
will be constant, its value is:
S 2mV 2
vx (τ ) = aτ = = V.
m 7S 7
The ball therefore moves uniformly in the x direction with a speed of
2V /7 relative to the table, so by the time it reaches the other side of
the strip,
2V s
d=
7v0