Imran. A great question. I would like to answer it in a slightly different way (you can sometimes do that with questions). After you push a ball it starts moving but does it stay moving?

When you push the ball you transferring your push (force)  to the ball and it moves. Newton (a great scientist and questioner) thought “Why does it stop moving? I have transferred my force to the ball and it should keep moving until it transfers that force to something else” But it does stops moving. I put this question to my friends and they came up with the following thoughts.

Why not investigate moving balls over different surfaces. You could use wood, paper, carpet, or the floor as surfaces and see how far the ball rolls BUT you have to make it a fair test. How do you create the same force?  How do you transfer the same force to the ball?

What would be your prediction (educated guess) about what the result would be? All scientist’s make predictions and then they test them.  My last question is, if there is something stopping the ball from rolling …. what do you think it is? has it got a name? If you have an answer you can leave it in the  ‘Leave a Reply’ box below. Want to ask another question …go to