A bowling ball is thrown onto the bowling lane and starts sliding at some speed without spinning.
Kinetic friction gradually causes the ball to spin, until the ball rolls without spinning.
How much of the initial kinetic energy of the ball is dissipated as heat due to kinetic friction before it starts rolling?
Details and Assumptions:
The ball is a solid sphere. No energy is lost to rolling friction or air resistance.
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The ball has mass m and radius r , and we know that for a solid sphere I = 5 2 m r 2 .
The ball is initially sliding with speed v 0 . While sliding, the kinetic friction force on the ball is F = − μ m g . On one hand, this causes the ball to decelerate translationally; on the other hand, it accelerates rotationally. a = m F = − μ g ; α = I τ = 5 2 m r 2 μ m g r = 2 r 5 μ g . After some time t , the speed of the ball is v = v 0 − a t and its rotational speed, ω = α t . The rolling stage begins when v = ω r . This gives us the equation v 0 − μ g t = 2 r 5 μ g r t ∴ t = 7 μ g 2 v 0 . Substituting this, we find that the rolling speed of the ball will be v = v 0 − μ g 7 μ g 2 v 0 = 7 5 v 0 ; of course, ω r will have the same value. The kinetic energy at that time is K = 2 1 m v 2 + 2 1 I ω 2 = 2 1 m ( 1 + 5 2 ) ( 7 5 v 0 ) 2 = 7 5 ⋅ 2 1 m v 0 2 . Compare this to the initial kinetic energy K = 2 1 m v 0 2 , and we see that the fraction of kinetic energy lost is 1 − ( 7 5 ) = 7 2 ≈ 2 9 % .
Note that the friction force not only converted 2 9 % of the initial translational KE into heat, but also converts 2 0 % of it into rotational KE. The remaining 5 1 % remains translational KE.