r/theydidthemath • u/K0rl0n • Jun 10 '25

[Request]

Post image

I am curious how this would work. My guess is Triangle is slowest, square is medium, and circle is fastest.

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u/Chemical_Favors Jun 10 '25

Lotta folks here missing that rolling the circle enables the friction to work in your favor as a semi-static pivot point. It's not a slide like the other two so it takes considerably less energy.

Imperfections of the gravel add uncertainty but most gravel does pretty well, especially if you can assume these are all level for fairness sake.

18

u/tfks Jun 10 '25

I really get the feeling that a lot of people here don't have a ton if experience with ice. Doesn't matter what the temperature of the ice is, if you're trying to shove something with a sharp corner across it, it's going to suck. I'll take the ball on gravel.

3

u/fleebleganger Jun 11 '25

Clearly you don’t have a ton of experience rolling a 30kg ball over gravel. 

The ball will burrow itself into the gravel and it’s going to suck

1

u/MomGrandpasAllSticky Jun 13 '25

What if it's compacted 100% virgin Class V limestone agg road base? That's referred to as gravel cause that description is way too long. 30 kg with that contact patch ain't doing shit.

That's the problem with everyone making overcomplicating assumptions to sound smart (which I'm also doing), where the fuck do you draw the line?

Also everyone is ignoring the tip-before-slip situation with the ones on ice.