Just returned from a Turkish supermarket where they still sell coke in cans (not common in Germany anymore) so I bought some for nostalgia. As I'm somewhat wasted and a wannabe (completely useless nerd) physician I spend some time thinking about and annoying people (hi ninemil! :D) with a physics problem related to cans and gravity and energy. Got somewhat confused with the different cases and thought I'd let you know what pointless stuff I am/was wasting my time on:



Given two cans with the same mass in total but different allocations (case (a) on the left) or same material/density but different amount of filling (case (b) on the right). All cans shall have same shape/surface/radius so only mass and allocation will matter, leave out air friction, too.
Now let roll down both cans (for each case) an inclined plane and compare speeds when they're hitting the ground. Which can is faster in case (a) and in case (b)?

First one should be zzz, second one might be tricky. Hopefully I got it right myself. Wonder what you guys find out about this :>