3.2

Projectile Motion

Student Notes

You can control the initial speed and launch angle of a ball, which then moves under the influence of gravity. Run the simulation using the original settings, and observe the motion and graphs.
Questions:

1. | What is the shape of the x-position graph? What is the shape of the y-position graph? Why are they different?
2. | What is the shape of the x-velocity graph? What is the shape of the y-velocity graph? Why are they different?
3. | How would the position graphs change if the ball's initial velocity were doubled to 10 m/s? Sketch your prediction, change the initial velocity, and run the simulation.
4. | What launch angle results in the longest horizontal range? Is the angle you obtain consistent with the claim made in your textbook?

Air resistance can be added to the model for comparisons, although most questions you will address in your course will concern motion without air resistance.

Self-test

1. | For an initial speed of 10 m/s, how many launch angles will result in a range of 1 meter? Just one? Or more? You may need to type in a launch angle to get closer to a 1-m range.
2. | With no air resistance, how does the maximum height depend on the initial velocity? If the initial velocity is doubled but the launch angle is kept the same, how does the maximum height of the projectile change?
3. | How does the range of the projectile depend on the initial velocity?
4. | How does the time the projectile spends in the air depend on the initial velocity?

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.