Ch 7-2

Which hits the ground first a bullet

that is dropped or a bullet that is fired
horizontally from the same height?

_____________
Same Time!! Demo!
Remember your air resistance experiment??

Why??

1 a definition
st

A projectile is any object projected

(thrown, kicked, launched, fired, etc) that
is then influenced only by the force of
_______.
gravity (As always, we will neglect the
force of air resistance)
What direction is the force of gravity?

________
Down (actually towards the
_______
of the earth)
center

Can a downward force cause an object to

accelerate in the horizontal direction?
NO So the force of gravity cannot
____!
horizontal
influence an objects ___________
motion. It only accelerates the object in
the _________
direction.
vertical
Since a projectile that is launched
horizontally has no initial _______
velocity,
vertical
vertical
its _________ motion
is exactly like that
of a dropped object. Thus . They fall
in the same time!

A strobe light photograph shows the

principle well. Note the vertical
positions of the two balls are the same at
each flash.

Projectile Motion, then, is simply a

combination of two types of motion that
operate independently of each other.
_________
Constant _________
Velocity motion in the
horizontal direction and .
_____ Acceleration
(________
Constant
Free Fall_____
___________) in the vertical direction.

The resulting
trajectory is
parabola
a __________.

An animation from
the Physics Classroom website:

Projectile Motion Equations

Recall v f

vi at

Horizontal (x) Motion

a = ____
0

1 2
& d vi t at
2
Vertical (y) Motion
In the
g
a = ____
downward
direction!

v x Constant v f y vi y gt
dx

vxt

d y vi y t

1 2
gt
2

Simplified projectile motion equations for

projectiles that are fired/thrown
horizontally (NOT thrown up or down)

Now
So

vi y 0

v f y gt
dy

1 2
gt
2

(Same equations as for an object that is dropped.)

Velocity Vectors for HorizontallyLaunched Projectiliesan animation

from the Physics Classroom...an
online physics tutorial (linked from my
website)

10 m/s
10 m/s

10 m/s

20 m/s

V
30 m/s

5m
15 m
25 m
35 m

Add the vectors

head-to-tail!

10 m/s

V2=102+302
V=31.6 m/s

30
tan

10

10 m/s
1

72

below horizontal

d y v yt
40 m/s

An Example Problem:
Usain Bolts World Record time in the 100 m dash is
10.4 m/s
9.58 seconds. Thats an average velocity of ________.
If, as a stunt, Bolt were to run off of a tall building
(height = 40 m) at his World Record pace how many
school buses would he clear if each bus is 3 meters
apart?
vx
What do we know?

v x 10.4 m

dy

d y 40 m

What are we trying to find?

..

dx

dx ?

the time
Before we can find dx, we must find _____________.

1 2
d y gt
2
1
40
2
2
40 9.8 t
t
2
4.9
t 2.9 s

d x 10.4 m

d x vxt

s 2.9 s 30 m 10 buses
(round down to 9?!)

With what speed would Bolt hit the trampoline?

v x 10.4 m

v f y gt

9.8 m

iy

s 2.9 s 28 m s
2

v 10.4 28
2

v 30 m 67 mph!
s