1.

11 Projectile Motion
Projectile motion is the motion of an object that is thrown into the air where it
subjected to the force of gravity. Unlike in 1.8 Acceleration Due to Gravity, we will now take
into consideration of the object travelling in two directions.

Normally when projectiles are launched across great distance, we need to take into
consideration the curvature of the earth. In grade 11 SPH3U physics, we assume that the
surface is flat for ease of calculation and for us to gain a basic understanding of actual
projectiles.

Key Idea: We need to analyze the object’s motion in the vertical and horizontal direction
______________________________.

• When an object is thrown at an angle to the horizon, the ball is travelling both vertically
and horizontally motion so it’s motion can be analyzed separately.
• We can apply a kinematics equation in each separate direction – the vertical and
horizontal motion
• Along the ____________________________ direction, the object is moving with a constant velocity.
It’s speed nor direction changes. There is no ____________________ in the horizontal direction.
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• Along the ____________________________ direction, the object is accelerating by 9.81 ' [Down]
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• The path the object travels called the _____________________ is parabolic due to the
combination of moving at a constant velocity along the horizontal direction with
constant acceleration in the vertical direction.

Constant Horizontal Motion

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If a ball was moving 5 [E] in the absence Vertical Acceleration Projectile Motion
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of gravity, it would continue moving If a ball was dropped, the object is If a ball was rolling at 5 [E] off the table,
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horizontally every second. It would travel accelerating due to the force of gravity, the object will continue moving horizontally
the same distance every second hence it travels a greater distance vertically at 5 % [E], but will now also move vertically
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than it did in the previous second
due to the force of gravity
Determining the Time an Object was in the air
• An object will continue to move horizontally forever will not come into contact with
another object. We cannot determine how long an object was in motion for from
analyzing the horizontal component (unless we are given more information).
• However, the object travelling along the vertical direction will at some point in time hit
the ground. At that point where the object hits the ground, it will cease moving
altogether (both horizontally and vertically)

Steps for Solving Projectile Motion Questions

When solving projectile motion, we need to determine how long an object was at flight.

1. Define the direction convention which two perpendicular direction is positive

2. Analyze the _______________ component FIRST and determine how long it took for the
object to travel from its initial position to the ground.

We need to use this kinematics equation:

⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑦 = 𝑣⃗0𝑦 Δ𝑡 + 1 𝑎
Δ𝑑 ⃗⃗ ⃗ Δ𝑡2
2 𝑦
And solve for time
We add in the subscript 𝑦 to indicate the displacement, velocity, and acceleration along the vertical direction

a) If the object was dropped or ran off an edge, then the initial vertical velocity, 𝑣⃗1𝑦 = 0
b) If the object was thrown with some initial velocity at some angle to the horizontal,
we need to use component to find out the initial vertical velocity. It is given
by 𝑣⃗0𝑦 = |𝑣⃗0 | ⋅ sin 𝜃 where 𝑣⃗ is the initial velocity and 𝜃 is the angle formed between
the velocity vector and the horizontal.

3. Because the object was also travelling horizontally as it was travelling vertically, the
time it took an object to displace from its initial vertical position to the ground, was the
same amount of time the object took while travelling horizontally.

We use the time we soled above and the initial horizontal velocity below to determine
the horizontal displacement
⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑥 = 𝑣⃗0𝑥 Δ𝑡 + 1 𝑎
Δ𝑑 ⃗⃗ ⃗ Δ𝑡2
2 𝑥
Since there is no acceleration in the horizontal direction, it simplifies to
Δ𝑑⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑥 = 𝑣⃗1𝑥 Δ𝑡
Conceptual Question. In which case will the textbook hit the ground first
a) The textbook pushed off dropped the table
b) The textbook is dropped from the same height as the table

Example. A motorcycle stunt rider rides off the edge of a cliff 50 m above the ground. At the
edge of the cliff, his velocity is horizontal, with magnitude 9.0 ms.

a. Determine the motorcycle’s displacement from the edge of the cliff, and velocity 0.50 s after it
leaves the edge of the cliff.
b. How long does it take for the motorcyclist to reach the ground
Example. A golfer hits a golf ball with an initial velocity of 54 m/s [420 above the horizontal].
a) What was the maximum height of the ball?
b) How far away horizontally from the golfer does the ball land?
c) What is the velocity of the ball when it lands?