written by Francisco Esquembre

This interactive simulation shows a stone block lying at rest on an inclined plane. Initially, the component of gravity along the plane surface is exceeded by the force of static friction. The slope of the ramp can be increased or decreased, allowing students to see the exact point when the component of gravity equals the force of static friction. If the ramp is raised any further, the block will slide down. The coefficient of static friction is set at 0.2. As the slope is increased or decreased, students will see changing numerical values for the gravitational component, the force of static friction, and the force of kinetic friction.

See Annotations (below) for two editor-recommended interactive tutorials that take students step-by-step through exercises designed to help them form a conceptual basis for solving problems related to objects moving on an inclined plane.

This item was created with Easy Java Simulations (EJS), a modeling tool that allows users without formal programming experience to generate computer models and simulations. To run the simulation, simply click the Java Archive file below. To modify or customize the model, See Related Materials for detailed instructions on installing and running the EJS Modeling and Authoring Tool.

• Download ejs_murcia_mech_SlidingDownAnInclinedPlane.jar - 1553kb Java Archive File

Last Modified June 12, 2014

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The source code zip archive contains an XML representation of the Sliding Down an Incline Plane model.   Unzip this archive in your EJS workspace to compile and run this model using EJS.

• Download ejs_murcia_mech_SlidingDownAnInclinedPlane.zip - 84kb Compressed File

Last Modified September 3, 2010

This file has previous versions.