Projectiles

• Definition
An object that has been given an initial
velocity and then allowed to move in freefall
under the influence of gravity is a projectile.
Balls that are thrown, kicked, or hit, javelins,
bullets or missiles, jumpers, divers and
gymnasts while in the air are examples of
projectiles.
• An object or a body is projected into the air for any
of several reasons. In the case of the diver or the
gymnast, the purpose of the projection is to gain
maximum time in the air, or time of flight. The
longer the time of flight the athlete can produce,
the greater the number of acrobatic moves that
can be performed. In other activities, a decreased
time of flight may serve to deceive or avoid an
opponent, as in volleyball spike, or a smash in
tennis or an onside kick in football.
• Projectiles may also be released for the
purpose of producing maximum horizontal
displacement. The long jumper, the discus
thrower, the shot putter, and the batter in
baseball are all examples of projection of an
object for distance. Maximum displacement
may also be in the vertical direction.
• Projections for maximum vertical
displacement include such activities as the
high jump and the pole vault. Projection of a
body or an object for maximum accuracy is
the purpose of actions such as shooting in
Basketball or soccer, archery or Golf. When
accuracy is the prime concern, a compromise
often must be made between horizontal
displacement and time in the air.
• Once released, projectiles follow a predictable
path. If air resistance is ignored because it is
considered negligible, this path will be a
parabola. The characteristic parabolic path of
a projectile is the result of the constant
downward force of gravity.
• This means that gravity will decelerate any
upward motion at a rate of 9.8 m/sec/sec or
will accelerate any downward motion at the
same rate. All the objects in freefall have the
same downward acceleration whether they
start from a resting position with a drop or fall
or have been given some initial velocity.
• There are, then, two forces acting on a
projectile: the projecting force and gravity. The
projecting force is vector quantity that may act
at any desired angle, depending on the
purpose of projection. The application of the
projecting force produces an initial velocity in
the object at some angle of projection.
• Because this initial release velocity is a vector
quantity, it can be resolved into two component
velocities, one vertical and one horizontal. The
vertical component of velocity, being a parallel
vector, will be directly affected by gravity.
Gravity is also a vector force that always acts in a
vertical, downward direction. This downward
force of gravity acts completely independently of
any horizontal component of the projecting force.
• If an object or body is projected with only a
horizontal velocity, then gravity, as the second
force will still act to cause that object to fall. If one
object falls, freely from rest at the same time that
another is projected horizontally from the same
height, both objects will hit the ground at the same
time. How ever, they will hit in different places. The
dropped object will land immediately below the
point of release, whereas the projected object will
land some distance away.
• Gravity has acted on both objects equally, giving
them equal vertical velocities in the downward
direction. The difference in landing points is the
result of horizontal velocity possessed by the
projected object. In the time it took both objects
to fall, the horizontal velocity of the projected
object carried that object some distance from the
point of release. This distance can be calculated
using the velocity equation V= s/t or s= V*t
• If, for instance, these two objects were balls
released at a height of two meters, they would
take .64 seconds to fall to the ground. If one
was projected horizontally with a velocity of
20m/sec, it would strike the ground at a
distance of 12.8 meters from the release point
( s=20m/sec*.64=12.8m)
• To change the time an object is in the air, the
velocity produced by projections must have
some vertical component. This may an upward
component, opposing gravity, or a down ward
component being added to gravity. The time
an object is in the air may also be varied by
altering the height of the release
• If the balls in the previous examples were
released from a height of 3 meters, the
dropped ball would be in the air for .78
seconds. Using the velocity equation again, it
can be determined that the horizontally
projected ball would travel 15.6 meters from
the point of release (s= 20m/sec*.78sec =
15.6).
• An object that is projected with only upward
velocity will be decelerated by gravity until it
reaches a velocity of zero. At this point, it will
start to drop back toward the release point,
accelerating as it falls. When the object reaches
the release point , it will posses the same velocity
it was given at release. The time required to
reach the highest point will be equal to the time
it takes to fall back to the height from which it
was released.
• More often than not, objects put into flight will
be projected in some direction other than exactly
vertical or horizontal. A projectile of this type has
both horizontal and vertical components of the
initial velocity vector. Again, these two
component velocities are considered
independently. The horizontal component of
velocity remains constant following release (if air
resistance is neglected), as no force is available to
change this velocity.
• The vertical component of velocity will be
subject to the uniform acceleration of gravity.
When the object is projected with some upward
angle, gravity will act to decelerate the object to
zero velocity and then accelerate the object
again as it falls downward. During this period of
vertical deceleration and acceleration, the
object is also undergoing constant horizontal
motion. This combination of these two
independent factors produces the parabolic
flight path of the projectile.
• The horizontal distance an object will travel in
space will depends on both its horizontal velocity
and the length of time the object is in the air, or
time of flight. The time of flight depends upon the
maximum height reached by the object, and that,
in turn, is governed by the vertical velocity
imparted to the object at release. Thus the
horizontal distance an object will travel depends
up on both the horizontal and vertical
components of velocity.
• As will be remembered from the earlier
discussion of vectors, the magnitudes of these
two components will be determined by the
magnitude of the initial projection vector and
by the angle that indicates the direction of this
vector, referred to as angle of projection.
• With this in mind, it can be seen that a
projectile with a low angle of projection will
have a relatively high horizontal velocity in
relation to the vertical velocity. The low
vertical velocity does little to resist the pull of
gravity, which therefore requires very little
time to decelerate the object to a vertical
velocity of zero and start the drop back down.
• In this instance, and therefore time of flight is short,
allowing little time for horizontal travel. If the angle
of projection is large, it takes longer time for the
object to decelerate to zero velocity, allowing a
much longer time of flight. In this instance, however,
there is little horizontal velocity, so little distance
can be covered in the available time. Thus it would
seem that the optimum angle of projection would
be 45 degree angle, with equal magnitudes for the
vertical and horizontal components.
• In fact, actual optimal angle of projection
depends on several factors, including purpose
of projection. A 45 degree angle of projection
will maximize the horizontal distance only if
release height and landing height are the
same. In this case. The object will approach
the landing at approximately the same angle
as that at which it was projected.
• If an object is projected from above the ground,
as in many throwing events, a lower angle of
projection may produce optimum results. This is
because of the object thrown will have a some
what increased time of flight as it covers the extra
distance between the height of release and the
ground as it falls. With this increased time of
flight, a slightly reduced vertical velocity and
slightly increased horizontal velocity will usually
be optimal.
• The greater the difference between release
height and landing height, the lower the angle
of projection needs to be. If initial velocity can
be increased, the optimum angle also can be
increased back toward a 45 degree angle.
From this discussion, then, it can be concluded
that speed of release, angle of projection,
and height of release are the three factors
that control the range of projectile.
 Projectile Motion
Motion In Two Dimensions

We restrict ourselves to objects thrown near the Earth’s surface so that gravity
can be considered constant.
Projectile motion refers to the motion of an
object that is thrown, or projected into the air
at an angle.

The motion of a projectile is determined only

by the object’s initial velocity and gravity.
Projectile motion applies to sports.
Projectile motion is a combination of horizontal motion and vertical motion.

The horizontal motion of a projectile is constant because no gravitational force acts

horizontally
The vertical motion of a projectile is nothing more than free fall
with a constant downward acceleration due to gravity.
The vertical motion of a projected object is
independent of its horizontal motion.
A projectile moves horizontally with constant velocity
while being accelerated vertically. The result is a motion
in a curved path.
The path of a projectile is called its
trajectory.

The trajectory of a projectile in free fall

is a parabola.
A projectile, once projected, continues in
motion by its own inertia and is influenced
only by the downward force of gravity.
An object projected
horizontally will
reach the ground in
the same time as
an object dropped
vertically.

No matter how
large the horizontal
velocity is, the
downward pull of
gravity is always
the same.
The cannonball falls the same amount of distance as it did when it was merely
dropped from rest
 Horizontally launched projectile
Horizontal velocity is constant. Vertical velocity is changing
due to gravitational acceleration..
 Vertically launched projectile
The horizontal velocity component remains the same size throughout the entire
motion of the cannonball.
Projectiles launched at different angles.
 Sports Trivia

Maximum range is achieved if the projectile is

fired at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to
the horizontal.
In Conclusion
A projectile is any object upon which the only force
is gravity.

Projectiles travel with a parabolic trajectory due to

the influence of gravity.

There are no horizontal forces acting upon projectiles

and thus no horizontal acceleration.

The horizontal velocity of a projectile is constant.

there is a vertical acceleration caused by gravity
(9.8 m/s.

The horizontal motion of a projectile is independent

of its vertical motion.
Test your knowledge

Suppose a snowmobile is equipped with a

flare launcher which is capable of launching
a sphere vertically. If the snowmobile is in
motion and launches the flare and maintains a
constant horizontal velocity after the launch,
then where will the flare land (neglect air
resistance)?
 Test your knowledge

Suppose an airplane drops a flare while it

is moving at constant horizontal speed at
an elevated height. Assuming that air
resistance is negligible, where will the flare
land relative to the plane?
A. Directly below the plane.
B. Below the plane and ahead of it.
C. Below plane and behind it.
Why does the horizontal component of a
projectile’s motion remain constant?

Because no force acts on it horizontally.

Why does the vertical component of a
projectile’s motion undergo change?

Because gravity is pulling it downward.

How does the vertical distance a projectile
falls below an otherwise straight-line path
compare with the vertical distance it would
fall from rest in the same time?

The vertical and horizontal distances are

equal.
A projectile is launched vertically at 100
m/s. If air resistance can be neglected, at
what speed does it return to its initial
level?

100 m/s
There is an interesting monkey down at the zoo. The monkey spends most
of its day hanging from a limb of a tree.

The zookeeper feeds the monkey by shooting bananas from a banana

cannon to the monkey in the tree. This particular monkey has a habit of
dropping from the tree the moment that the banana leaves the muzzle of the
cannon.

The zookeeper is faced with the dilemma of where to aim the banana
cannon in order to hit the monkey. If the monkey lets go of the tree the
moment that the banana is fired, then where should she aim the banana
cannon?
 To ponder this dilemma consider the following:
Shoot at the monkey in a gravity free environment.

In the absence of gravity, the banana moves in a straight line path (and does not
experience any downward acceleration) and the monkey does not fall once he
lets go of the tree.
 Shoot at the monkey
with gravity.

The banana moves in a parabolic path in the presence of gravity. In the presence of
gravity, the monkey also accelerates downward once he lets go of the limb. Both banana
and monkey experience the same acceleration since gravity causes all objects to
accelerate at the same rate regardless of their mass.

Since both banana and monkey experience the same acceleration each will fall equal
amounts. The banana misses the monkey, moving over his head as it was originally
aimed.
 Shoot at the Monkey at a Fast Speed with Gravity On

Since the banana left the muzzle moving very fast, the banana reaches the monkey
before the monkey has fallen very far.
 Shoot at the Monkey at a Fast Speed with Gravity On

Since the banana left the muzzle moving very slow, the banana reaches the monkey
after the monkey has fallen considerably far. In conclusion, the key to the zookeeper's
dilemma is to aim directly at the monkey.