Rolling and sliding resistive forces on balls moving on a flat surface

Abstract

A simple theory of rolling resistance is compared to experimental results on rolling billiard balls. The resistive force is shown to be independent of velocity for velocities smaller than 0.5 m/s. The sliding friction coefficient is determined by measuring the force needed to immobilize a skidding ball. The coefficient increases with increasing sliding velocity and approaches asymptotically the value of 0.21 which is quoted in the literature.