Re: Car acceleration

[Bob Sciamanda <trebor@VELOCITY.NET>]

The WE theorem says about the cylinder rolling (without slipping) down the
inclined plane:

mg x Sin (TH) - fx = .5 m v^2

(the cylinder starts from rest and acquires the linear speed v after going
the distance x measured along the plane.)

The frictional term fx does not generate heat, it generates rotational
kinetic energy:

fx = .5 I w^2

Note that these two equations yield the energy conservation statement:

mg x Sin(TH) =.5 mv^2 + .5 I w^2.


Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
www.velocity.net/~trebor