Rolling Uphill

In a recent letter to this journal, Mungan noted that translational energy can be converted into gravitational potential energy when an object is projected vertically, but rotational energy is not usually converted in this manner. As an exception, he gave an example where "a ball initially rolling without slipping will travel higher up a rough ramp than it will up a frictionless ramp." However, such a result is unlikely to be observed in practice. A better example would be a ball spinning rapidly forwards as it slides up the ramp, since the friction force on the ball then acts in a direction up the ramp.