One of the most important applications of the formulations for studying motion in two dimensions is the study of

projectile motion. This motion occurs when an object, near the surface of the Earth, is through in any direction (not
necessarily straight up)  and the air resistance is neglected. For the motion of an object under the previous
conditions, the vertical component of the motion obey the formulations used for free fall motion while the horizontal
component of the motion corresponds to motion with constant velocity.

Quantity Horizontal Component Vertical Component

 There is not acceleration in this The acceleration is the acceleration of
Acceleration
direction,  . gravity, 
Since the vertical motion is motion with constant acceleration,
the same formulas used for free fall motion can be applied to
this motion.

Velocity (average)

The velocity of the object in the

horizontal direction is with constant
Velocity
velocity,  . Velocity (average)

Velocity (instantaneous)

Time Independent
Equation

There is only one equation that relates

the displacement, velocity, and time for The displacement along the vertical component of the motion
Displacement
the component of the motion in the is given, again, by the same formula as that for free fall
horizontal direction,

  Displacement

As a consequence of the equations for the horizontal component of the motion and the vertical component of the
motion, the trajectory described by the projectile correspond to part of a parabola independent of the initial conditions.
In fact, the horizontal and vertical components of the displacement are written in the parametric form of a parabola
where the parameter is the time. An explicit parabola can be obtained by solving for the time in the formula for the

horizontal displacement,   , and substituting this solution in the formula for the vertical

displacement,  . In the last expression, the velocity in the

horizontal direction is constant. The previous relation is a quadratic function of the vertical position as a function of
the horizontal position.

Vector Relations

In addition to the previous group of formulas, relations between different vectorial quantities and their correspondent
components can be found,
 Initial Velocity Velocity at Time t

The vector velocity is tangent to the parabola

In the above figure,   represents the vector initial representing the projectile motion of the object at any
instant of time. By definition, the instantaneous
velocity is the tangent to the curve representing the path
followed by the object. The components of the velocity
velocity. This vector is defined as    are calculated using the formulas
where 0 is the angle with respect to the horizontal plane.
This vector can be broken down into two vector
components one along the horizontal direction and the
second one along the vertical direction. These two vectors
are defined as
On the other side, knowing the components, the
magnitude and direction of the velocity can be calculated
using

Displacement at Time t
and
The displacement of the projectile is represented by the
vector  . The magnitude and direction of this vector are
given by

Notice that the previous signs are also obtained from the

corresponding trigonometric expressions,   

At the same time, the components of the displacement
for the horizontal component and   for the along the horizontal and vertical direction can be
vertical component. Remember that the values of the calculated from
function cosine are negative for arguments greater than
900 and smaller than 1800 while the values of the function
sine are negative for arguments greater than 1800 and
smaller than 3600.

Knowing the components of the vector initial velocity, the

In the previous table, the most useful relations for solving problems are those associated with the initial velocity of the
projectile.

Maximum Height and Range

In the study of projectile motion, there are two additional quantities that are important to identified, the maximum
height and the range of a projectile.

Maximum Height Range

The maximum height is obtained at the point where the The range of the projectile is obtained when the object
vertical component of the velocity vanishes. At this point, returns to the ground. In most cases (but not always), the
the velocity of the projectile is identical in magnitude and ground correspond to y = 0 point where the projectile will
direction to the horizontal component of the velocity. impact the ground. However, if the terrain is not flat, the
From the time independent formula above (Time returning point may be different than the launching point of
Independent Equation), the maximum height can be the projectile. Thus, in most cases, the range is calculated
calculated, using the point y = 0 as a reference for the returning point.
In the formula for the horizontal displacement the only
unknown is the time taken by the projectile to return to the
ground. This time is calculated by using the vertical
component of the displacement at the value
of y representing the ground level,

 
The previous formula becomes an equation for the time,

This quadratic equation can be solved by simple factorization of the time.

There are two solutions for the previous equation, t = 0 and  . The first solutions correspond to the time
when the projectile was launched, t = 0. The second solution corresponds to the desired solution. Thus, substituting
this time into the equation for the horizontal displacement, the range of the projectile can be calculated.

This range can be written in terms of the magnitude and direction of the initial velocity,

 Range of the Projectile

The last relation can be simplified farther using the trigonometric relation,  . The following
expression is the standard form of the range for a projectile,

 Standard form of the Range

For a given magnitude for the initial velocity, there is an angle for which the range is actually maximum. This angle
corresponds to the maximum of the trigonometric function sine which is a multiplication factor of the Standard form of
the Range (see above). The maximum of the function sine can be obtained graphically from the figure below,
Graph of the
trigonometric
function sine for one
period. The
maximum value of
the function is
obtained when the
angular argument is
900. At this point,
the value of the
trigonometric
function sine is
sin 900 = 1.
Therefore, in the
case of the
projectile motion,
the maximum range
of the projectile is
obtained when

The plotting of the

trigonometric factor
associated with the
formula
labeled  Range of
the Projectile is
presented at the
graph on the left.
Notice that the
period of the factor
sin  cos   is
1800 rather than
3600 as it is the
case for the
individual
trigonometric
functions plotted in
the figure. Thus,
between 00 and 900,
the values of the
sin  cos   factor
for different angles
are repeated. In
fact, cos  = sin
(900 - ) leading to
sin  cos  = sin  si
n (900 - ). In the
last expression, the
value of the
 trigonometric factor
are the same
for   as well as
for (900 - ).
Therefore, adding
the two angles, it is
obtained

  +(900 - )

  900

In conclusion, the
range of the
projectile is the
same for two
launching angles
that are the
complement of
each other.
The graphs below show the trajectory of the projectile for different launching angles. The value for the magnitude of
the initial velocity is the same for all launching angles. Notice that the ranges for the projectiles corresponding to
complementary angles are the same.