Projectile Motion Student work sheet
After watching the videos try to answer the following questions:
1. Describe the motion of the object?
2. Is it a motion in one or two dimensions?
From the given picture; you can see a skateboarder jumping off his board when he encounters a rod. He manages to land on his board after he passes over the rod.
1) What is the difference between the motion of the skateboard and the motion of the man (the skateboarder)?
2) How does the man manages to keep the skateboard underneath him, allowing him to land on it?
3) According to Newton's first law, the man should continue flying in the air. Why does he take a different path? What is this motion called?
4) Try to simulate the motion of the man using the device in front of you.
5) Can you suggest a name for this device?
The skateboard
6) What is the shape of the path taken by the fired ball?
7) What factors might affect the path of the ball?
Note: For all of the following experiments please use the short rang and use a plastic ball, For your safety please avoid looking at the muzzle and stay away from the path of the ball.
Part 1 /// free fall and projectile motion (ball fired horizontally)
1) Determine the time the ball would take when shot horizontally from a launcher until it reaches the floor and record its final position.
2) Determine the time the ball would take to free-fall the vertical distance from the launcher muzzle to the floor (starting from rest) and record its final position.
3) Compare the time and the vertical distance that you obtained from both step1 and step 2. Explain your answer.
4) Summarize the similarities and differences between the two kinds of motion.
(Aid your answer with a sketch)
5) Determine the initial velocity of the ball (muzzle velocity) when shot horizontally from a launcher. Repeat 3 times and average your results.
Part 2///projectile motion (ball fired horizontally)and projectile motion (ball fired with an angle)
6) Determine the time the ball would take when shot with an angle 40° until it reaches the floor and record its final position.
7) Compare the data obtained from step1 and step6 and explain your answer.
8) Determine the initial velocity of the ball when shot with an angle 40° .(hint use trigonometric function)
9) Compare the initial velocity of the ball obtained from step5 and step8 and explain your answer.
10) Calculate the expected time of flight the ball would take when shot with an angle 40° (Hint: use the equations of motion and your data from step 8).
11)Compare the time obtained experimentally in step 6 with the time calculated from step 10. (Hint: use the equations of motion)
12)Calculate the expected horizontal distance from data obtained in step 10.
13)Compare the horizontal distance obtained experimentally in step 6 with the distance calculated in step 12 .
14)Summarize the similarities and differences between the two kinds of projectile motion. (Aid your answer with a sketch)
Part 3///the range and the initial angle.
15) By firing a ball on the bench table (not to the ground), examine how changing the angle might affect the horizontal distance (in this case called the range) by collecting your data in a table and representing it graphically.
16) What angle gives the maximum range?
17)Compare the range when firing with an angle of 30° with the range when firing with an angle of 60°. What do you notice?
18)Use the data table of step 15 to determine the initial velocity. The range is related to the initial angle through the relation 𝑅 =𝑣𝑔02 sin 2𝜃0
Part 4///the path of the trajectory
19)If you are given rings. How can you use what you have learnt in this experiment to make the ball pass through all the rings successfully. (use at least 3 rings-the cup is optional)