Investigation 2 / Position and Velocity of a Projectile
Activity for Module 5: Investigation to observe the position and velocity of a projectile in the xand y- directions.
Go to the website:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com:8100/legacy/college/halliday/0471320005/simulations6e/i
ndex.htm
Notice that there is a menu on the left-hand side of the screen. We want to go to the 4th one
from the top: Projectile Motion.
You can control the initial speed and launch angle of a ball, which then moves under the
influence of gravity. Run the simulation using the original settings, and observe the motion
and graphs.
Questions:
1. What is the shape of the x-position graph? Why?
2. What is the shape of the y-position graph? Why does this occur?
3. What is the shape of the x-velocity graph? What is the shape of the y-velocity graph? Why
are they different?
4. Compare the y-velocity graph with the y-position graph. What do you notice about the
velocity when the projectile is moving upwards? At its maximum height? Moving
downwards?
5. How would the position graphs change if the ball's initial velocity were doubled to 10m/s?
Sketch your prediction, change the initial velocity, and run the simulation.
6. With no air resistance, how does the maximum height depend on the initial velocity? If the
initial velocity is doubled but the launch angle is kept the same, how does the maximum
height of the projectile change?
7. How does the range of the projectile depend on the initial velocity?
8. How does the time the projectile spends in the air depend on the initial velocity?