Investigation of the rolling motion of a hollow cylinder using a smartphone

Abstract

This paper describes the use of smartphone's gyroscope sensor to analyse a hollow cylinder rolling down an inclined plane. The smartphone (iPhone 4s) was attached to the end of hollow cylinder and was equipped with the Sensorlog application (Sensorlog app) to record the angular speed of rolling down an inclined plane. The experimental results agree with the theoretical model that is familiar to students for the rolling motion on an inclined plane. Moreover, the coefficients of static friction and kinetic friction were determined to be 0.205 ± 0.011 and 0.178 ± 0.003 from the measurements, respectively. This experiment demonstrated an alternative way to teach the rolling motion in a physics laboratory.