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by RHSeeger
490 days ago
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> Good one, chap! How about you argue with substance instead ... Considering they were replying to a post that was, effectively, arguing "nuh uh!", their response seems reasonable. > Explain, what makes the ball suddenly start rolling down the dome? That's _literally_ the entire point. Nothing does. There is nothing that causes the ball to start rolling. But the Newtonian laws of physics indicate it will. |
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Pedantically: they indicate it can. The situation where the ball spontaneously starts rolling[1] at any specific moment in time, without any application of force or interaction with any other part of the system, are perfectly legal and well-defined by the laws of motion. They just can't be predicted determinically.
[1] FWIW it's not even a ball in this case, as the rotational mechanics of a sphere with non-zero moment of inertia would destroy the very carefully constructed function required for the potential energy field.