Projectile Motion

This week for our lab the class furthered our knowledge of physics by studying projectile motion.  What is a projectile?  An object in motion with only the force of gravity that is influencing it.

 

How does one analyze projectiles?  For our class we went down to the gym and shot some hoops.  In the gym, we took videos of ourselves shooting (this is very accurate because one has to remember that a projectile will travel with a parabolic trajectory). 

 With the Vernier App we were able to plot our points in time (x and y coordinates seperately) and graph position over time with the velocity over time graphs.

With all of this information we were able to derive these equations

y=mx+b
y=acceleration
m=slop=velocity
x=time

Real Life application:

The best shooter of all time, Miami Heat guard Ray Allen, is an exceptionally talented athlete as well as physicist.  Allen understands the concept of projectile motion as he has made the most three pointers in NBA history and has a career free throw shooting percentage of 89.4%