Simple Ramp Diagram with Ball

Question

How would I make the following diagram and label the values? I would prefer it if instead of a box, there were a ball rolling down the ramp and the horizontal ground displacement were labeled as well. The force arrow is not necessary. Thank you.

Answer 1

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
% \draw [help lines] (0,0) grid (10,10);
\draw (0,0) rectangle (1,4);    
\draw [rotate around={-25:(1,4)}] (0,4) rectangle ({4/sin(25)+1},4+0.2);    
\draw [rotate around={-25:(1,4)}] (4,4+0.2+0.5) circle (0.5);   
\draw (-1,0) -- (10.3,0);
\draw [latex-latex]  (-0.2,0) -- ++ (0,{4+tan(25)}) node [midway,align=left,xshift=-0.7cm]{height\\of ramp};
\draw [latex-latex]  (1.1,3.7) -- ++ (-25:{8.5}) node [rotate=-25,midway,yshift=-0.3cm]{length of ramp};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

A nice one to do with the basic shapes in Metapost and the "Pythagorean minus" operator...

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Helvetica}
\usepackage{luamplib}
\begin{document}
\mplibtextextlabel{enable}
\begin{mplibcode}
beginfig(1);

path ground, wall, ramp, ball;

w = 21; h = 3w; r = 200; a = angle(r+-+h,-h);

ground = (left -- right) scaled 140;
wall   = unitsquare xscaled w yscaled h shifted 110 left;
ramp   = unitsquare xscaled (r+w) yscaled 5
                    shifted point 3 of wall
                    rotatedabout(point 2 of wall, a);
ball   = fullcircle scaled 2 shifted up rotated a 
                    scaled 10 shifted point 2.7 of ramp;

draw ground;
fill wall withcolor .7[red+1/2green,white]; draw wall;
fill ramp withcolor .7[red,white];          draw ramp;
fill ball withcolor .7[blue,white];         draw ball;

path mark[];
mark1 = (point 1 of wall -- point 1 of ramp) shifted 7 down;
drawdblarrow mark1; 
draw (down--up) scaled 2 shifted point 0 of mark1;
draw (down--up) scaled 2 shifted point 1 of mark1;
label.bot("Displacement", point 0.5 of mark1);

endfig;
\end{mplibcode}
\end{document}

Notes

• Compile with lualatex.

• The units of measurement are PostScript points: 72 = 1in, 28.35 = 1cm

• Move the ball by picking a different point along the ramp.

• A unitsquare path has four points numbered anticlockwise from the lower left.

• Add more labels as desired.