Projectile Motion Flashcards
What is a projectile?
any object acted upon only by the force of gravity
What are the 3 key principles that apply to all projectiles?
1) the acceleration of the object is always equal to g and is always downward, the acceleration only affects the vertical motion of the object
2) the horizontal velocity of the object is constant because the acceleration of the object does not have a horizontal component
3) the motions in the horizontal and vertical directions are independent of eachother
What happens to an object thats initial projection is horizontal?
its path through the air becomes steeper and steeper as it drops
the faster it is project, the further it will travel horizontally
the time taken for it to fall does not depend on how fast it is porjected
How can projectile motion be investigated?
slow shutter camera or video camera
What does it take for an object to behave like a projectile?
constant acceleration in a different direction to its velocity
The drag force operates…
in opposite direction to the direction of motion
it increases as the projectile’s speed increases
has a horizontal component that reduces horizontal speed and range
reduce maximum height of the projectile if its initial direction is above the horizontal, makes its descent steeper than its ascent
How is lift created?
projectile causes the air to flow faster over the top of the object than underneath it
therefore the pressure of the air on top surface is less than that on the bottom surface
the pressure difference causes lift
What are the horizontal components of object projected at speed U, at an angle θ?
if there was no gravity and air resistance was negligeble
horizontal component of U cosθ
vertical component of U sin θ
