Projectile Motion

     ~In this lab, we headed to the gym to analyze a launched projectile. A projectile is when an object is only acted on by the force of gravity. Using a basketball, one person threw the basketball in the air, while the other video taped. The force of gravity acted on the launched basketball and made it fall down. After, we analyzed the video and looked at the graphs made after making marks of the ball in the video. After making the blue marks, we opened the and looked at the x and y graphs. We looked for any slopes to see if there was acceleration.

X graphs: On the top graph, we see that the slope is constant and unchanging. It is not messy.

However, on the bottom graph, the line is straight but looks very crooked and messy because the scale of the graph is very small.

     -Because the bottom graph has no slope and is relatively constant, there is no net force.

                                                


Y graphs: The top graph looks like a parabola and has an acceleration because the slope is always changing.

On the bottom graph, the line is moving downwards and has a negative slope. The line also goes below the x axis because when the ball is in its highest point, it stops moving. At this moment, it starts to fall down. Because there are slopes, there is acceleration.

 

When we combined the slopes in our table we got an average of -10 m/s squared. In class, we found out that the slope is -g. 

The general path of motion is to go up and then down because of gravity. Gravity pulls the object down when it the object is launched forward or up.