Projectile Motion

Projectile Motion

       In this week's lab we analyzed projectile motion. We did did this by throwing a basketball into the air, and as soon as it left our hands it became a projectile. Because the main idea in this lab was forces in two dimensions, we analyzed both the x(horizontal) and y(vertical) dimensions of the ball. After doing this we concluded that in the x direction the only force acting upon the ball is gravity(a downward force), and that the the ball is moving at a constant speed horizontally in the x direction but not in a constant direction. When we analyzed the ball in the y direction we were able to see that it was accelerating but constantly slowing down.

Here is a visual of the force acting upon a projectile-GRAVITY

(disregard the interaction between the person and the earth)

X-Dimension

This velocity-time graph shows the velocity of the basketball in the x direction. After analyzing the graph with a best fit line, we can see that the slope is zero, meaning that the x-velocity is constant.

In this position-time graph we can see that the position of the basketball in the horizontal direction is changing at a constant rate from its initial position.

Y-Dimension

In this velocity-time graph we can see that the velocity of the ball in the y-direction(vertically) is always accelerating at -10m/s^2 (we get this from the slope) from the initial velocity.

In this position-time graph we can see that the position of the basketball in the y direction(vertical) is in the shape of a parabola because that is literally the path the ball takes in the vertical direction.