Projectile Motion

1
Projectile Motion

• What to Know
• Before you throw!

2
What is it?

• Projectile motion is the curved path an object
  follows when it is thrown or pushed near Earths
  surface

3
Some examples . . .

• This arched path happens when you
• Kick a soccer ball
• Throw a baseball
• Take a long jump
• Shoot a basketball
• See a water fountain
• Dive into water
• Watch fireworks

4
Why does it do that?

• There are TWO motions at work
• A push that moves the object forward. This
  horizontal
• motion comes from a force
• A pull from gravity brings the object down to
  earth. This is a vertical motion.

5
Put it all together

• Combine the forward motion and the falling motion
  and you get an arc!

6
The Tricky Question

• So, lets say you are standing on the roof of a
  building and have two bullets. You shoot one
  from a gun and drop the other one from the same
  height.
• Which bullet lands first?

7
The Answer

• Most people say the bullet shot from the gun
  lands first, but who was their science teacher?
• The bullet from the gun is going forward faster
  BUT since you know all things fall at the same
  rate (9.8 m/s/s) they hit the ground AT THE SAME
  TIME!

8
One More Time

• An object is controlled by two independant
  motions. So an object projected horizontally will
  reach the ground in the same time as an object
  dropped vertically. No matter how large the
  horizontal velocity is, the downward pull of
  gravity is always the same.

• http//library.thinkquest.org/2779/More.html