Question

A valued client brings a treasured ball to your engineering firm, wanting to know whether the ball is solid or hollow. He has tried tapping on it, but that has given insufficient information. Design a simple, inexpensive experiment that you could perform quickly, without injuring the precious ball, to find out whether it is solid or hollow.

Short answer

Make one incline plane and take another identical solid sphere. Now, depart them at the same height and moment. If they all fall at once, the sphere is solid. That sphere is hollow if it descends more slowly than a solid one.

Step-by-step solution

Hollow sphere

A hollow sphere is a ball that has been hollowed out to the point that another internal ball is created inside the external ball by a wall of equal thickness.

Identification of given data

Here we have one treasured ball

We have to find whether it is solid or hollow.

Finding whether the treasured ball is solid or hollow.

Regardless of their mass or size, all uniform solid spheres will roll through an inclined plane and arrive at the bottom at the same time. In order to determine if it is hollow or not, we can use this information. Simply create one inclined plane and then take a second identical solid sphere. Now, depart them at the same height and moment. If they all fall at once, the sphere is solid. That sphere is hollow if it descends more slowly than a solid one.