Projectile Motion 3
1. It’s 6:30 Saturday morning & you forgot to turn off your alarm clock which is now
ringing stridently across the room. Being a conscientious physics student you lob you
shoe at it with a velocity of 5m/s at an angle of 35o. If the alarm clock is 4.3 meters away
did you hit the clock & turn it off?
sketch with givens:
x component = ___________
y component =____________
time equation: _________________
#’s in equation:________________
total time = __________________
distance equation: __________________
#’s in equation:______________________
distance shoe went = _________________
__________Did the shoe hit the alarm clock?
2. Your backup alarm clock (which turns the overhead light on while buzzing loudly)
starts to go off 10 minutes later. Luckily it’s within reach so you lob it at the light. It
makes a nice beautiful arc. If the light is 2.5 meters overhead (& 0.3m to the side)& you
threw the clock with a velocity of 3.2m/s at an angle of 65o did you knock the light out &
finally go back to sleep?
sketch with givens:
x component = ___________
y component =____________
height equation:______________________
#’s in equation:______________________
height clock went into air =_____________
time equation: _________________
#’s in equation:________________
total time = __________________
distance equation: __________________
#’s in equation:______________________
distance clock went across the room = ______________________
____________Did the clock hit the light while going through its trajectory?
3. Using Quinn & Trent’s infamous mousetrap catapult, a marshmallow projectile was
shot with a velocity of 4.7m/s at an angle of 40o. How high did the marshmallow go, how
much time did it spend in the air, & how far did it travel (assuming we cut the string tying
the mallow to the catapult BEFORE we launched it).
sketch with givens:
x component = ___________
y component =____________
height equation:______________________
#’s in equation:______________________
height marshmallow went into air =_____________
time equation: _________________
#’s in equation:________________
total time in air= __________________
distance equation: __________________
#’s in equation:______________________
distance marshmallow went across the room = ______________________
4. You are an artillerist in King Callaghan’s army. After testing your catapult for a while,
you find that it has an initial firing velocity of 45.0 m/s, quite consistently. During an
important Friday night battle, your commander, Sir A-Z, instructs you to knock down the
flag on one of the battlements of Castle Canyon (which, conveniently, is the same height
as the release point of your catapult).
A.Considering the fact that you can adjust the firing angle to whatever you’d like
(hint...what angle will give you the greatest distance?) and that you really don't want
to get hit with an arrow - what is the furthest that you could be and still hit the flag?
(Ignore air resistance.)
sketch with givens:
x component = ___________
y component =____________
time equation: _________________
#’s in equation:________________
total time in air= __________________
distance equation: __________________
#’s in equation:______________________
farthest accurate distance = ______________________
B. How high will your boulder be at the highest point of this trajectory (flight path)?
height equation:______________________
#’s in equation:______________________
height boulder went into air =_____________