Projectile Motion – 45 Degree Angle, a Special Angle or Just a Another Angle

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Projectile motion – 45 degree angle, a special angle or just a another angle Projectile motion is all around us. It can be seen when kids play soccer, at water fountains, golf and so on and on. There are two types of projectiles. Horizontal and vertical. Velocity, gravity, displacement and acceleration are some of the things that are part of the projectile motion. Out of the whole projectile motion there is one phenomena which is called 45 degree angle. People say that its distance is the farthest compared to all the other angles regardless their angle of elevation. This statement is 100% true. Best examples to prove this would be maximum range, right triangle and proving the projectile motion. The main reasons this angle is so special is the maximum range. No matter in what degree cannon ball is fired, the distance will never be higher than the one fired from 45degrees. Imagine three cannons on a field. The first one at angle of 30 degrees, the second one at 60 degrees and the third one at 45 degrees. If all of these cannons are launched at the same time it will be easy to witness that the first one to reach the ground is the cannon ball inside the first cannon. Why is that? It’s easy, smaller Vertical component (Vy) value, shorter is the time of the cannon ball in the air. The cannon ball launched at 60 degree is the one to land last. This one not only spent the most time in air it also reached the highest Vy compared to the others. If Vy is higher the time spent in air will be greater too. Greater height means that the horizontal Component (Vx) is smallest that brings the cannon ball launched at 60 degree angle the smallest range. And the 45 degree angle is the one that time was between the previous 2 cannonballs. The cannon ball launched at 45 degree was the one that didn’t spend the most time in air but still came after the cannonball launched at 30

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