How can a tennis ball being rolled across 5 meters have no acceleration/deceleration?

Answer 1

An object in motion stays in motion unless something pushes on it.

So if a tennis ball feels no friction, it just keeps going.

Of course a REAL tennis ball rolling along slows down due to friction. This is why people have an intuitive sense that you have to push something along to keep it going. But if it weren't for this friction, you would not.

Answer 2

By no means do I have any background in Physics, but when when I read your question, I immediately thought of an answer. It may not be even close to the answer you are looking for, but it does make sense. Place a magnet inside the tennis ball. I would think that there would be no acceleration/decelleration after the initial movement when the magnet is attracted to the magnet 5 meters away, just the movement of the magnet to the other magnet. Hopefully if you are taking a Physics class, you could better explain the technicalities to the answer I gave. I just think a magnet would be able to accomplish this.

Answer 3

It has to be pushed or pulled with a constant velocity. The other way is to have it roll down a hill and let it reach terminal velocity. As long as the hill has a continuous slope, once the ball reaches terminal velocity, it will not accelerate.

Answer 4

if it rolls at a constant speed