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Projectile Motion Lab

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19 views2 pages

Projectile Motion Lab

Uploaded by

dinasmakiqi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Projectile Motion Lab – Workshop Science Name: ___________________Date:______

Purpose:
The purpose of this activity is to analyze the nature of a projectile's motion and to explore a variety of questions
regarding projectile motion.

Procedure and Questions:


1. Navigate to the Projectile Simulator and experiment with the on-screen buttons in order to gain familiarity
with the control of the animation.
 The launch speed, launch height and launch angle can be varied by using the sliders or the buttons.
 A trace of the object's motion can be turned on, turned off and erased.
 The vector nature of velocity and acceleration can be depicted on the screen.
 The animation can be started, paused, continued, single-stepped or rewound.
 The time of flight, the horizontal displacement, and height are displayed during the course of the
animation.

After gaining familiarity with the program, use it to answer the following questions.

Section 1: For Horizontally Launched Projectiles:


Raise the launch height to about 50 meters and adjust the launch angle to 0 degrees. Conduct several trials to
answer the following questions.
1) Use the language of mathematics (vector, direction, velocity, etc) to describe the path or trajectory of a
projectile.

2) During the course of a trajectory, is the horizontal component of the velocity a constant or a changing
value? ___________________
a) If it is a changing value, then describe its changes (increasing, decreasing, or ...).

3) During the course of a trajectory, is the vertical component of the velocity a constant or a changing value?
___________________
a) If it is a changing value, then describe its changes (increasing, decreasing, or ...).

4) Describe the acceleration of a projectile - direction, constant or changing magnitude, etc. Be complete.

5) As a projectile falls vertically, it also travels horizontally. Does its horizontal velocity affect the distance the
object falls vertically? _______________. In the space below, display some collected data which clearly
support your answer. Discuss how your data provide support for your answer.

6) A classic mind-bender: If a ball is dropped from rest from an elevated position at the same instant that a
second ball is launched horizontally (from the same height), then which ball will hit the ground first?
Assume the balls behave as projectiles.
Projectile Motion Lab – Workshop Science Name: ___________________Date:______

Section 2: For Angle Launched Projectiles:


Return the launch height to ground level. Conduct several trials to answer the following questions:
7) Would launching a projectile at an angle affect any of the answers you provided earlier?
a)Consider path or trajectory, horizontal velocity (vx), vertical velocity (vy) and acceleration.

8) At what point in the projectile's trajectory is the velocity vector entirely horizontal (i.e., the vertical
component of velocity is zero)? __________
a) If necessary, slow the simulation down using the Pause and Single Step (>>) buttons to find an answer.

9) TRUE or FALSE:
The acceleration of projectile is 0 m/s/s at the peak of the trajectory. Identify the evidence that supports your
answer.

10) Pick a launch speed and angle and compare the time required for the projectile to rise to the peak of its
trajectory to the time for the projectile to fall from the peak of its trajectory.
a) The Single Step button and the Vector display can be used to assist in your measurements. Repeat for
other launch angles if necessary. Describe your findings.

11) For a fixed launch velocity, what launch angle (between 0 and 80 degrees) maximizes the time of flight for
an angle-launched projectile? In the space below, display some collected data, which clearly support your
answer.

12) Set the launch speed to 30 m/s and the launch height to 0 meters. Fill in the table below to investigate the
effect of launch angle on horizontal displacement.
Launch Angle (deg) Horizontal Displacement (m)
10
20
30
40
45
50
60
70
80
13) Based on the data collected above, which launch angle provides the maximum range (horizontal
displacement) for a projectile?

14) Describe any other obvious observations that you could make from the inspection of the above data.

Summary Statement:
Discuss the motion of a projectile in terms of the changes (or lack of changes) in its horizontal and vertical
motion parameters. Consider path or trajectory, horizontal velocity (vx), vertical velocity (vy) horizontal
acceleration (ax) and vertical acceleration (ay)

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