Two-Dimensional Analysis of Shot Put

Objective : To analyse the path of a shot put thrown and to fit a quadratic model to it.

First, watch this short video to get an idea of what shot put is all about.

Below is an image of a mapped out path of a shot put.



1. Use the scale given in the image for 1 meter, answer the following questions.
a) How far has the shot put traveled before it hit the ground?

The red and orange lines are the same length as the 1meter scale given in the image.
The short traveled approximately 8.200 meters before hitting the ground.
b) What is the coordinate of the maximum point of the shot put?
The maximum point is the highest point the ball reached. In this case it is 2.679
meters upwards from the point it was thrown and approximately 4.080 meters right
from the point where it was thrown.
c) Use your knowledge of quadratic functions, come up with a function that would fit
the path of the shot put. ( algebra not tech!)
(image are used for easier understanding and is not use of tech)

A quadratic parent function is y=ax^2. Since it has an upward slope, the function for
the path of the shot put will be a<0.

It also has horizontal shift 4.080m upwards and vertical shift 2.679m to the right.

If you plug in (8.200, 0) into the equation above, a turns out to be -0.17257594887.
So the approximate quadratic function that would fit the path of the shot will be

2. a) Put the image into Geogebra and test out your function to see if it fits.



(Dotted line: original, Solid line: approximate quadratic function)
The vertex of the two lines do not meet but the x-intercept seems to meet. Since it is a slight
differences, I think the width (a part of

) and vertex points coordinates should

be specified to make the pathway more precise.
b) Come up with other quadratic functions that would fit the path.
(4.080, 2.679) and (8.200, 0) were estimated points, however, we know the pathway will
have (unknown distance, 2.679) as it was suggested in the picture.

1. (4.083, 2.679) and (8.195, 0)

2. (4.077, 2.679) and (8.205, 0)