FOUR-BALL PROBLEM IN A SMOOTH CYLINDER—REFLECTIONS ON QUESTION 4 OF THE 39TH SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' PHYSICS COMPETITION REMATCH (EXTENDED EXAMINATION)

For the fourth problem of the 39th National Secondary School Physics Competition Repechage (Extended Examination), the force analysis of the four-ball system is first performed to obtain nine (non-linear differential) equations based on dynamics and kinematics to obtain two first integrals (conserved quantities). The solution is then given by numerical simulation. It is found that the original reference solution is a good approximation when the initial angular velocity is not large. Finally, the approximate solution is further investigated to obtain results accurate to t^5 in the Taylor expansion. The whole analysis provides a reference case for dealing with mechanics problems.