Two identical balls are released from rest at the same time. Ball A travels down a straight incline to the floor, while ball B travels down a steeper slope and then takes an almost horizontal path to the bottom of ball A's incline.
Which ball wins the race?
The one thing that should be equal for the two balls is the speed at the bottom. They both experience the same change in potential energy, so their final kinetic energies should be equal.
Ball A travels the shortest path, but it picks up speed gradually all the way down the incline. In contrast, ball B drops quickly and reaches top speed quickly. It then travels at this top speed for the rest of the trip. B wins the race because its larger average speed more than makes up for the extra distance traveled.