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#1: Belita (belita) on Oct 2, 2021 [SPOILER]

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No idea. Easy solve. No guessing. Kinda pretty.

Whether you see the blue on the corners depends on your angle of view. I looked at spirals on google images.

As I was solving I was very confused because I had misread Psychic ;-)

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The spin won't matter. Something like a steel ball, with a smooth surface, won't be affected. Something like a golf ball, with a dimpled surface, won't be moving fast enough to be affected. With something light enough and dimpled enough, like a wiffle ball, the spin will be immediately slowed and stopped by the surrounding air, and its trajectory won't be affected.

The ball will go straight unless there are other forces applied to it, and there aren't any except perhaps friction with the air or table, which should be small. So to a first order approximation it will go straight.

If the ball is relatively light and spinning fast enough to have some friction with the air, it may curve a little. If the spiral is clockwise as the ball descends, the ball will be spinning counterclockwise, and there will be higher air pressure on the right side of the ball. Therefore the ball will curve a little to the left, the opposite of the curvature of the spiral.

If there is friction with the table, and if the table is not totally smooth, it could go either way or wander back and forth.

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The trajectory will be straight, and angled outward slightly.

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I think once the ball exits the ramp it will slowly rise up about 10 feet in the air, circle lazily a few times, then shoot off at dizzying speed, cackling maniacally.

Cuz that's much more fun.

You may have something there, Bill!

If the ball is hugging the side of the spiral, there will be a bit of sidespin. Think of it as having the spin axis not exactly horizontal, and with a bit of friction, it will turn a little bit until the spin axis is horizontal. So there will be a bit of curve initially (let's not assume a frictionless surface here), then straight off. It it's hugging the right edge of the spiral, it will go right for a little bit, then straight. Left edge, well you know.

Bill, that's what a Golden Snitch would do for sure!

"The ball rolls off" Onto what?
A frictionless horizontal surface...straight.
Into a freefall...a parabolic path to the ground.
A horizontal surface with medium friction...perhaps a slight curve like a fancy billiard shot.
A high friction horizontal surface... sudden deceleration like a golf sand trap.

Now, if it is a baseball with laces or a golf ball with dimples, than air resistance comes into play with even more interesting possibilities.

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