• Vertical and horizontal components of projectile motion.

Pre-requisite skills:  A basic understanding of velocity and acceleration.

Approximate completion time:  30 minutes.

Provide sufficient detail to verify that the assignment was completed in a meaningful manner.

Applet by Gary Richert

1.  Set inital velocity of the projectile to (roughly) 80, and the initial angle to (roughly) 52 degrees.   Fire the projectile.  Using graph paper (click here if none is available) draw corresponding axes and re-create the dots as closely as possible.

2. Using a straightedge, draw vertical lines that extend from each point down to the x-axis.  Describe the spacing between point where the vertical line touches the x-axis.  What does this mean physically?

3.   Now draw horizontal lines that extend from each point to the y-axis.  Again, describe the spacing and explain the physical significance.

Air resistance included

Now check the box titled "Air resistance."

4.  When the applet is run, how is the spacing between the horizontal lines (from Question 2 above) affected?   Where is the spacing the greatest?  What does that mean physically?

Helpful Resources

1. Vectors and Motion by Tom Henderson.
2. The Physics Hypertextbook by Glenn Elert (see Mechanics)
3. Physics E-Book - Projectile Motion by Fred Gram (formerly, Zogrseb, of the planet Ktoobirzp).
4. Book of Phyz - Motion by Dean Baird

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