Phet Colorado
A phet colorado worksheet about the projectile motion of a
cannon ball using the simulation provided from phet to collect
the data. link:
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/projectile-motion/latest/projectile-motion_en.html
The worksheet includes two parts.
Done by: Mustafa B. M. Alaraj
Student of University of Sharjah, engineering department
Part I will be about the relation between angle and range.
Part II involves the effect of air resistance in the projectile motion.
Part I
The first part will analyze and study the relation between the angle and
range and trying the spot the best angle for the highest range.
Fix the initial speed at 18 m/s and find the range for each angle:
Angle (θ degrees)
Range (m)
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
Insert the graph here
Questions:
1- Describe the data of the table:
2- What angle gives the greatest range?
3- From the following table, find the gexp using the results of the
table:
4- What is the percentage error of the gexp assuming the real value is
greal= 9.81?
Part II
This part is about studying the effect of air resistance on the range.
First things first, The air resistance is a deacceleration force that is
always directed against the movement direction. The part will focus on
the effect of changing the mass and the diameter of the cannon ball.
During this experiment the speed will be fixed at 20 m/s, direction at 40
degrees, drag coefficient 0.47 and altitude of 0 m
Mass-Range with air resistance
Fix the diameter at 0.75m and find the range corresponding to each
mass:
Mass (kg)
Range (m)
5
10
15
20
25
Insert your graph here
Questions:
1- What is the relation between the mass and air resistance?
2- In case the mass of the cannon ball approaches infinity. What
could the range be? And describe its motion.
3- In simple words, how could the mass affect the air resistance?
Diameter-Range with air resistance
Fix the mass at 15 kg and find the ranges:
Diameter (m)
Range (m)
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
Questions:
1- What is the relation between the diameter and the air resistance?
2- If the diameter of the cannon ball tends to reach zero, what is the
range? describe the effect of the air resistance.
3- What really affect the air resistance, volume or surface area?
explain why and give example to support your idea:
Q. Write a conclusion about your understanding of the effect of
air resistance: