2.

1C Projectile Motion | Notes

The curved path of a rock thrown into the air, or a football

that has been drop-kicked, are examples of a projectile path.
In this chapter we will study these two-dimensional motions
and describe them in mathematical terms. The stroboscopic
photograph shows the path of a ball projected into the air.

What do you notice about the path of the

ball in terms of terms such as displacement,
velocity and acceleration?

Some of these same descriptions

were very important to the early
design of cannons which fired solid
cannonballs for military purposes.

Motion Under Gravity

You may have noticed that the motion of the ball

can be considered as the addition of two separate
linear motions at right angles to each other. There
is the horizontal flight of the ball through the air
and the vertical flight of the ball. We will refer to
these two motions as the horizontal component
and the vertical component.

The Horizontal Component

If we neglect the effect of air resistance, then
this motion is a constant velocity motion. So
the ball travels the same distance horizontally
in a unit of time. Sometimes this component
of the motion is referred to as the x-
component of motion.
The Vertical Component.
Once again we will neglect the effect of air resistance acting on the ball. In doing
so we note that the vertical motion of the ball is accelerating downwards.
Sometimes the vertical motion is referred to as the y-component of motion.

In order to understand this vertical motion

more clearly, we will limit our attention to the
simplest form of a projected object -one where
a ball is projected vertically into the air, as
shown, and does not move horizontally.

The fact that the ball began with an initial

upwards velocity and this velocity decreased
to zero when the ball was at the top of its flight
suggests that it was accelerating downwards.
The second half of the ball's motion confirms
this. The ball drops to the ground again and
its velocity increases as it does so. This
information suggests that the ball is
continuously accelerating down-wards. A
more quantitative analysis would reveal that
the value of this acceleration is 9.8 ms-2.

The diagram illustrates this fact, as both the coin and the
feather will drop through the vacuum tube at the same
rate. This is one of the classic experiments performed by
the first astronauts who landed on the moon. At present,
it is sufficient to recognise that, neglecting air resistance,
all objects will accelerate at the same rate of 9.81 ms-2.
This acceleration has a special name and symbol and its
direction is always vertically downwards: acceleration due
to gravity

g = 9.81 ms-2 downwards.

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CASE 1

Problem 1

A ball is thrown vertically into the air with an initial velocity of 18 m s-1 upwards.
(a) How fast is the ball travelling 1.5 s into its flight?
(b) How high will the ball be after 1.5 s?
(c) What is the maximum height the ball reaches?
(d) How long will the ball take to reach the ground once again?
CASE 2

Suppose ball A is dropped from the edge of

a table while another identical ball B is rolled
off the side. At the moment the balls leave
the table, A has zero velocity (both in the
vertical and horizontal direction), while B has
an initial horizontal velocity ux.
We can analyse the horizontal and vertical
components of ball B more carefully by
taking measurements from the stroboscopic
photograph (images that are superimposed
on each other at regular intervals) of its
motion.

The horizontal component:

If we take a ruler and measure the horizontal distances between the positions of
ball B at various times, these distances all appear to be equal. This suggests that
the horizontal velocity of the ball does not change and that it continues to move
horizontally at same distance per flash. This is true if we neglect the effects of air
resistance.

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The vertical component:
Comparing the vertical position of ball B with ball A we can see that they are
identical. The motion of ball A is exactly the same as the vertical motion of ball B.
This ball moves with a zero initial velocity and an acceleration of g =9.81m s-2
downwards. So, the vertical velocity of the ball is increasing according to the
equation v = u + at or v = at since u = 0 ms -I where v = vertical velocity t seconds
after the ball leaves the edge of the table a = g = 9.81 m s-2 downwards.

Notice that (neglecting resistance):

1. the horizontal velocity of ball B remains constant
2. the vertical component of ball B's velocity is increasing
3. the total velocity of ball B is the vector sum of these two velocities.
4. the time taken for the balls to drop from the same height is identical

Problem 2

Breaking this motion into its two components allows us to analyse it in terms of
the two linear motions superimposed on each other. This reduces the difficulty of
solving problems in projectile motion theory. In each of the following problems we
will assume the ball rolls off a table with an initial horizontal velocity of 5.00 m s-1,
the height of the tabletop being 1.00 m.

In the example discussed above

a) determine the time it would take for the ball to reach the floor.

b) determine how far out from the edge of the table the ball lands.

c) determine the velocity of the ball the instant it hits the ground.

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CASE 3

CASE
3

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CASE 4