ProjectileDefinition: an object is projected or dropped and continue its motion by its own inertia and only acted upon by downward force of gravity.
The Free-Body Diagram of a Projectile(right): no matter what direction it is moving toward |
Characteristics of Projectile Trajectory:
Horizontally Launched ProjectilesNotice: A Projectile travels with a constant horizontal velocity (because air resistance is negligible) & a downward vertical acceleration(because there is a vertical force acting upon it).
Table bout projectile's state of motion |
Non-horizontally Launched ProjectilesNotice: The trajectory of non-horizontally, or angled launched projectile is parabolic.
Table about projectile's state of motion |
Components
Components:
- The horizontal velocity component = vx ;
- The vertical velocity component = vy.
- The velocity of Projectile motion can be describe in x- and y-components, with x for the horizontal dimension and y for the vertical dimension.
- Horizontal velocity, or the x-component, never changes; the vertical velocity, or the y-component, changes by a factor of 9.8 per second downward.
- Dependence:
- The vertical displacement, denote by the symbol y, only depends upon the acceleration of gravity.
- the horizontal displacement (x) is only influenced by the horizontal speed of the projectile (vix) and the amount of time (t) that it takes to move horizontally.
Formula
Horizontally Launched Projectiles
|
Non- Horizontally Launched Projectiles
|
Formula for Vertical Displacement:
Formula for Horizontal Displacement
|
|