A ball on a turntable can move in circles instead of falling off the edge (provided the initial conditions are appropriate). The effect was demonstrated in a video and can be simulated with MapleSim. The amination below shows a simulation of a frictionless case and the case with a coefficient of friction of one.
Also demonstrated in the video: Tilting the table leads to a sideward (not a downhill) movement of the ball.
The presenter of the video noted that in the untilted state, the ball eventually drifts off the table, attributing this to slippage. This drift is also observable in the animation above, where the ball starts moving in a spiral, whereas in a Maple simulation (below to the left), the ball follows a perfect circle. Only after optimizing contact and initial conditions, MapleSim produced a result (using the same parameters) that exhibits a similar circle, with a slight difference in angular orientation after completing two revolutions about the center of the circle.
Some observations on the MapleSim model:
- The results only slightly depend on the solvers. Numerical inaccuracies do not seem to be the reason for the difference in orientation.
- The ball bounces up and down in the MapleSim simulation (0.0025 of the balls radius). The bouncing is caused by the fact that the initial position of the ball is above the elastic equilibrium position with respect to the table (the elastic contact makes the ball sink in a bit). Adding damping in the settings of the contact element attenuates this effect and reduces the drift.
- Drift is not observable anymore if in the contact element setting for "kmu" (smoothness coefficient of sliding friction) is set to larger values (above 10 in this example). This is an indication that sliding friction occurs during the simulation.
- Choosing the equilibrium position as initial condition for the ball does not prevent initial bouncing because MapleSim sets an initial velocity for the ball that is directed away from the table. I did not manage to enforce strictly zero velocity. Maybe someone can tell why that is and how to set MapleSim to start the simulation without vertical velocity.
- Assuming an initial velocity towards the contact to cancel the initial vertical velocity set by MapleSim substantially reduces bouncing and increases the diameter of the circle. This finally leads to a diameter that matches the Maple simulation. Therefore the initial bouncing combined with slippage seems to dissipate energy which leads to smaller circles. Depending on the contact settings and initial conditions for vertical movement the diameter of the circle varied moderately by about 15%.
In summary, MapleSim can be parametrized to simulate an ideal case without slippage. From there it should be possible to tune contact parameters to closely reproduce experiments where parameters are often not well known in advance.
Some thoughts for future enhancement of MapleSim:
- In the model presented here, a patterned ball would have been helpful to visualize the tumbling movement of the ball. Marking two opposite sides of the ball with colored smaller spheres is a fiddly exercise that does not look nice.
- A sensor component that calculates the energy of a moving rigid body would have helped identifying energy loss of the system. Ideally the component could have two ports for the rotational and translational energy components. I see professional interest in such calculations and not only educational value for toy experiments.
- A port for slippage on the contact elements would have helped understanding where slippage occurs. Where slippage is, there is wear and this is also of interest for industrial applications.
Turntable_Paradox.msim (contains parameter sets for the above observations)