Projectile Motion Essay

843 Words4 Pages
Projectile Motion Kristin Lietazu and Maggie Allen Objective: The purpose of this experiment is to help students understand the motion of a projectile at different angles. Theory: An important special case of two-dimensional motion is known as projectile motion. A projectile moves at a constant speed in the horizontal direction while experiencing a constant acceleration of 9.8m/s2 downwards in the vertical direction. The speed in the horizontal direction (vx) is constant throughout the projectile motion. It is used to predict the position at any time in the horizontal direction, which can be found, by using the equation: x = vxt = v0 cosθ0t Where, x = the horizontal displacement vx = velocity in the x direction v0 = initial velocity t = time θ0 = initial angle. The speed in the vertical direction constantly changes because of gravities downward pull. The equation that predicts the vertical velocity at any time “vy” is vy = v0y + ayt Where vy = velocity in the y direction v0y = initial velocity in the y direction ay = acceleration in the y direction. If a projectile is fired at any angle the object will fall vertically in time, which is represented by the equation: y = v0yt + ½ayt2 = v0sinθ0t - ½(-9.8m/s2)t2 Procedure: Part I First we set up the projectile launcher and found the height from the ground to the height of where the ball would be ejected. Then (from the medium range position) we shot the ball and noted where it hit the floor and placed the carbon paper (on top of a sheet of paper) down and tapped it. After tapping it we measured the distance from the where the ball would be fired to the edge of the carbon paper. Then we fired the ball 10 times. Next we measured the distance from the edge of the paper to each mark on the carbon paper. Then we added those values to the first horizontal value measured and found the

More about Projectile Motion Essay

Open Document