Projectile Motion

Question 1

What is projectile motion?

Answer 1

How a point or body moves when airborne (assume acceleration is constant, ignore air resistance )

Question 2

What path does the centre of mass follow?

Answer 2

A parabola
Horizontally - moves through the same distance as the time point before
Vertically - Increasing gaps so every time period it speeds up and gets closer to the ground

Question 3

What are the factors affecting projectile range?

Answer 3

Release speed - faster speed = further
Release angle - middle is optimal if release height = landing height then optimum is 45 degrees
Landing height above release height then above 45 degrees landing height below release then below 45 degrees
Release height - higher is further - more time to hit the ground

Question 4

What is tangential release?

Answer 4

If a body is moving in a circle and is released the release angle equals the tangent to the circle

Question 5

How do we solve projectile motion equations?

Answer 5

1. Separate into vertical and horizontal components
2. See if you can solve for these using the info available
3. Apply SUVAT equations to get the unknown
4. Use one component to solve the other
5. Check it’s sensible