Projectile Motion

Big Question-What is a projectile? What is the general path of motion?

There are 3 different types of projectiles
1) When an object is dropped from being at rest.
2) When an object is thrown vertically upward.
3) When an object is thrown upward at an angle or horizontally.

When there is only gravity acting on an object, it is considered a projectile. In the diagram below, we drew out 4 Velocity v Time graphs. Remember now! The slope of a Velocity v Time graph is ALWAYS acceleration. As you can see, some of the graphs show that the ball is accelerating. The two x-component graphs have a constant slope and velocity. The two y-component graphs depict the ball slowing down until it reaches the highest position. Then, the ball accelerates down while speeding up.

During our post game analysis, we analyzed our graphs and found the slope of everyone's shot. our table worked together to find the average number of our slope and compared it to the class. We realized the the average slope of the entire class was 10.2. Sounds like a familiar number, right? That's because the gravitational pull on Earth is 10N/kg. Gravity was the only force acting on the basketball. This explains why when the ball travels upwards, the velocity slows down. The ball starts to speed up once it reaches the top of the y-axis as it travels downward!