Projectile Motion

claimed by ngillis3

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Short Description of Topic

The Main Idea

Let us imagine firing a cannon, or throwing the ball off of a tower, driving a golf ball off of a tee or even shooting a basketball. All of these are examples of projectile motion. By definition, a projectile has a single force that acts upon it - the force of gravity. If there were any other force acting upon an object, then that object would not be a projectile. Thus projectile motion is motion under the primary action of gravity where the initial velocity in some horizontal direction is not zero.

Regardless of whether a projectile is moving upwards, downwards, upwards and rightwards, or downwards and leftwards, the free-body diagram of the projectile is still modeled as an object upon which the only force is gravity. Thus, the free-body diagram of a projectile would show a single force acting downwards and labeled force of gravity (or simply Fgrav).

A Mathematical Model

What are the mathematical equations that allow us to model this topic. For example [math]\displaystyle{ {\frac{d\vec{p}}{dt}}_{system} = \vec{F}_{net} }[/math] where p is the momentum of the system and F is the net force from the surroundings.

A Computational Model

How do we visualize or predict using this topic. Consider embedding some vpython code here Teach hands-on with GlowScript

Examples

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Connectedness

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See also

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