Simple Model of a Rolling Water-Filled Bottle on an Inclined Ramp

We investigate a water-filled bottle rolling down an incline and ask the following question: is a rolling bottle better described by a model ignoring all internal motion where the bottle is approximated by a material point sliding down an incline, or is it better described by a rigid solid cylinder rolling down the incline without skidding? The measurements presented here represent a special case of similar experiments described by K.A. Jackson et al. (see Ref. 1 and references within). There exists also a report by Kagan describing the motion of soda cans rolling on an incline. In our case we investigate motion of the fully filled bottle. We demonstrate that within accuracy of our experiment the motion of the bottle can be described by a simple “frictionless water” model. The analysis of the dynamics of the bodies sliding and rolling on a ramp is a standard component of introductory physics classes, and a required component of the Advanced Placement (AP) Physics curriculum.