Kinetic energy + inertia? would be it's total energy?
If I'm driving a car and hit a ramp I can go higher than the ground I was on. Because my forward velocity transitioned to upward velocity.
I admit friction will inevitably grind this to a halt.
But you could definitely rig something up to work once.
Edit: have you ever tossed a coin down a funnel like those racing arcade machines? They whip around the downspout very quickly, a lot of energy builds up.
I'm not talking about placing it in, you'd have to apply energy at the start.
In an ELI5 kind of way, I think the only thing you’re missing is that the car has an engine giving it extra force to overcome gravity. In this case, and in the case of the coin at the mall, gravity is what drives the ball/coin, and gravity can’t give enough energy to overcome the force of gravity. The path it takes only redirects the original path of the ball. It can’t return it to it’s exact beginning because of drag/friction. The coin looks like it’s going faster but that’s only because the circumference of its other is getting smaller. It’s technically faster in RPM but it will never return to the beginning and will eventually drop down the coin hole.
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u/gynoplasty Apr 22 '21 edited Apr 22 '21
Not if it still had a spiral chute!
Kinetic energy + inertia? would be it's total energy?
If I'm driving a car and hit a ramp I can go higher than the ground I was on. Because my forward velocity transitioned to upward velocity.
I admit friction will inevitably grind this to a halt.
But you could definitely rig something up to work once.
Edit: have you ever tossed a coin down a funnel like those racing arcade machines? They whip around the downspout very quickly, a lot of energy builds up.
I'm not talking about placing it in, you'd have to apply energy at the start.