...only four people out of how many estimated the speed from the video? Here I was chastising myself for thinking of essentially Robert’s approach second (after about a minute or two) instead of immediately, and am surprised so few measured speed at all.
Tangentially, I’m not sure if I’d have thought of ramp flexibility even after observing a different speed than expected from energy conservation—I might have just chalked it up to rotation or friction. But to not measuring the velocity...!
Once in high-school I successfully predicted from theory alone the height required for a free falling toilet paper roll to hit the ground at the same time as a roll that has a sheet held to a wall, but even just my chance of a math error is high enough that I wouldn’t trust it. And I consider that more effort than measuring speed, despite being comfortable with the math.
...only four people out of how many estimated the speed from the video? Here I was chastising myself for thinking of essentially Robert’s approach second (after about a minute or two) instead of immediately, and am surprised so few measured speed at all.
Tangentially, I’m not sure if I’d have thought of ramp flexibility even after observing a different speed than expected from energy conservation—I might have just chalked it up to rotation or friction. But to not measuring the velocity...!
Once in high-school I successfully predicted from theory alone the height required for a free falling toilet paper roll to hit the ground at the same time as a roll that has a sheet held to a wall, but even just my chance of a math error is high enough that I wouldn’t trust it. And I consider that more effort than measuring speed, despite being comfortable with the math.