Question

"If a horizontal disk rotates counterclockwise, and a ball flies off the edge of the disk at an angle of 0 degrees, when the disk is facing directly to the right, what will the ball's subsequent path be like?"

I have a multiple choice selection of diagrams on my worksheet, but could not insert a picture of them. I've narrowed it down to two. Here are the two I'm undecided in:

1. Moving up, in a completely straight line from the point of contact with the disk.
2. Curving up, like the right half of an upward-facing parabola, and gradually getting steeper/ more vertical.

Any insight?

Answer 1

@wolfe Any thoughts?

Answer 2

How does a horizontal disc face right?

Anyway, the ball flies off tangentially and follows the usual trajectory for a projectile with its initial velocity and in the presence of gravity. Presumably, this is a constant horizontal velocity and an increasingly negative vertical velocity.

Answer 3

Picture a record on a record player, with a red block somewhere along the very edge. So, if the record has 2 lines drawn across it, dividing it into equal 4 parts, and the red block is at the end of one of the x's legs, then when the records spins, counterclockwise, if the x is square with you, and the red block is at what would be 0 degrees, then if it flies of right then, what will the motion be like? Straight, with no curve in the trajectory, or be a curved, line of trajectory?

Answer 4

Gravity takes over and eventually the ball heads down, steeply.

Answer 5

Sorry- I guess I wasn't clear: I'm only talking about a horizontal scenario, as in... Only a horizontal, x-axis analysis. No vertical... Like the red box is at floor-level of a frictionless floor. Then, how does it move? Completely and perfectly straight, or like one half of an x squared graph, parabolic?