Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Projectile Motion
- Projectile motion is a special case of two-dimensional motion.
If we neglect air resistance, then unpowered objects moving through
the air near the earth's surface have
- constant horizontal speed
- constant vertical acceleration (-9.8 m/s^2)
- The vertical component of a projectile's velocity is zero
when it is at the peak of its trajectory.
- If a projectile starts and ends its motion at the same height,
then the time it takes to go up equals the time it takes to come down.
- Sometimes, you need to use the horizontal component to figure
out a quantity for the vertical problem; other times, you need
to use the vertical problem to determine a value that will
solve a horizontal equation.
Viewgraphs
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.