09 Projectiles

Chapter 9
Projectiles
When you throw a baseball the path of the baseball
is an example of projectile motion. In the absence
of air friction, the horizontal part of the velocity will
not change while the vertical part of the velocity will
be accelerated.
Enough with the simple one dimensional stuff. Now lets have
some fun with two dimensional situations. Remember that the
horizontal motion and the vertical motion can be treated
individually and independently.
1. You are walking atop the white cliffs of Dover arm in arm with
a) How long will it take for the Can to land?
b) How far from the cliff will it land?
c) What is the horizontal component of the can’s velocity just
before impact?
Ned. For no apparent reason you pick up a rock and hurl it
d) What is the vertical component of the can’s velocity just before
horizontally (off the cliff) at 18 m/s. You estimate that the rock
impact?
has a mass of 1.37 kg.
a) How far does the rock travel horizontally in 1.5 s?
3. Another boring day in the oval office. Since taking over things
b) How far has the rock traveled vertically after 1.5 s.
c) How far away from your hand is the rock after 1.5 s?
seem to be going so well that you are considering making the job
a part time position. To pass the time you roll a marble off the
executive disk and observe it hitting the floor 1.0 m from the
d) What is the vertical component of the velocity of the rock after
desk. If the desk top is 0.75 m above the floor, how fast was the
1.5 s?
marble traveling when it left the desk?
e) What is the horizontal component of the velocity of the rock
after 1.5 s?
f) What is the velocity of the rock (speed and direction) after 1.5
4. A rusted piece of metal drops off of a bridge. How fast is it
traveling in m/s 2.6 seconds after its release?
s?
5. Brunhilda Broom, in a fit of rage over a Government class,
2. Jill is experiencing one of those horrible no good very bad
throws a 12 oz. can of Armadillo Meat directly up at 8.6 m/s. Her
days. To remove some of her frustrations she kicks a 0.4 kg can
government teacher seeing this display, decides that Brunhilda
of Lutefisk horizontally at 5 m/s off a cliff 15 m high.
deserves an "A" (after all throwing things at a problem is the big
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government way). Oh but we are doing physics now sooooo the
questions are:
a) How high does the can go?
b) How long is the can in the air?
8. You start to climb to the top of a light tower (still on the moon's
softball field) and as you approach the top a small moon rock (a
memento perhaps) falls out of your uniform pocket. With nothing
better to do (Ned did not make the trip), your lab partner
6. Your time travel device falters again and you find yourself in the
Brunhilda measures the velocity of the rock just before it hits the
middle of a field in Pennsylvania just before the battle of
moon's surface. Her data indicates that the rock had a speed of
Gettysburg. You are handed a Sharps repeating carbine and told
57.4 m/s just before it hit the moon.
to practice. You aim the gun so that the barrel is horizontal with
the ground and fire the 0.04 kg (650 grains) bullet with a muzzle
velocity of 400 m/s (1,300 fps). The barrel was 1.8 m above the
horizontal when you fired.
a) How high up the tower were you when the rock fell out of your
pocket?
b) What is the mass of the rock?
a) What will be the time of flight for the bullet?
b) How far from the gun will the bullet hit the ground?
9. Ok back to some fun stuff
7. You have been selected to play the first softball game on the
Alkina (aboriginal name for the moon) fires a dart from her
moon. In preparation for the game you look in the back of your
blowgun at 40 m/s. She aims the gun at 30° above the
physics book and determine that objects near the moon's surface
horizontal.
accelerate towards the moons surface with an acceleration of 1.6
m/s2. Your trip to the moon in uneventful. You debark from the
shuttle and begin to warm up.You throw a softball straight up and
time its flight. It is in the air for 4.2 s.
a) What was the softball's initial velocity as it left your hand?
b) How high did the softball go?
a) What is the dart's initial vertical velocity?
b) What is the dart's initial horizontal velocity?
c) How long is the dart in the air?
d) How far down range does the dart land? (ignore for the
moment the distance from the blowgun to the ground)
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10. It is the bottom of the 11th inning. The score is still tied. It is
b) What is the vertical component of the velocity of the burning
hero time. The pitch, the swing, the clink of a ball hitting the
pitch as it leaves your catapult?
aluminum. The ball leaves your bat with a speed of 46 m/s (about
100 miles per hour) at an angle of 57° above the horizontal.
Ignoring air resistance and the distance the ball is above the
c) What is the horizontal component of the velocity of the burning
pitch as it leaves your catapult?
ground when you smack it.
d) How far away from the catapult does the burning pitch land?
a) How long is the ball in the air?
e) What is the maximum height of the burning pitch during its
b) What is the maximum height of the ball?
c) Will it hit the outfield wall on the fly, drop short of the wall or go
over the wall? The wall is 102 m away and has a height of 2 m?
11. Study hall is boring. Time to time travel again. Poof, you land
in feudal Scotland, a time for castles and gore. You are inside the
walls of a makeshift fortification when a clan leader, Mel, notices
you. "Nice kilt" he comments as he notices the plaid of your skirt.
He is trying hard to remember what clan is represented by that
particular pattern. You notice that he is also wearing a kilt. Your
begin to ponder one of the age old questions of all of Scotland.
flight?
f) If the fortification walls are 3 m high, how far from the wall
should you put the catapult to make sure that the burning pitch
clears your own fort?
12. Linda's time travel machine leaves her near a sand pit by
Bruno NE. No Mel, no kilts, no Scotland. Linda has only her
slingshot and an endless supply of gravel pebbles. There are no
other signs of life forms in the vicinity. With her trusty slingshot,
Linda fires a pebble which is in the air for 5.0 seconds and lands
75 m away from where it took off.
Mel interrupts your pondering with a question. "Can you make a
a) What was the initial vertical component of the pebble's
catapult?". To make a long story as short as Mel's kilt, you
velocity?
construct a catapult which can hurl a vat of burning pitch. The
mass of the pitch filled vat is almost 30 kg, and your preliminary
b) What was the initial horizontal component of the pebble's
estimate indicates that the pitch will be pitched at 18. m/s at an
velocity?
angle of 45° above the horizontal.
a) How long will the burning pitch be in the air?
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Two freshmen types are comparing their prowess in throwing a
15. A 0.7 kg rock is thrown so that it flies for 4.3 seconds before
baseball. Melinda Rose can throw a baseball with an initial speed
hitting the lunar surface and it lands 36 m from its launching
of 20 m/s. Her friend Nettles, can throw a baseball with a speed
point. What was the initial vertical and horizontal speed?
of 25 m/s. They decide on a friendly contest to see who can
throw a baseball the farthest distance. If Melinda wins Nettles
must take her on a romantic canoe trip in the Benson Park
Look over what you are doing in the above solutions. First you
Lagoon (hey they are freshmen.... what do you expect). If Nettles
split each problem into two separate parts: a vertical one and a
wins Melinda agrees to go to the stock car races with him on
horizontal one. In the case of projectile motion, the vertical
Sunday night. Nettles throws his baseball at an angle of 28° with
velocity is the thing that gets the ball into the air. The greater the
respect to the horizontal while Melinda throws hers at an angle of
vertical velocity the longer the ball will stay aloft.
43°.
The horizontal velocity has no effect whatsoever on how long the
13. Who wins? (and by how much)
14. You pick up your Sharps rifle and fire a bullet into the air. The
velocity of the bullet is 300 m/s and you make a 3.5° angle with
the horizontal with the barrel of the gun.
a) How far does the bullet go down range before hitting the
ground?
ball stays in the air. It is the thing that determines how far forward
the object will fly. The range of the projectile is determined by a
combination of the horizontal speed at which the projectile flies
and the vertical speed which determines how long the object will
be in the air.
16. You are in summer employment heaven. The circus has hired
you, fame, travel, excitement. You report for your first day of
b) If a 1.7 m tall person is standing 100 m away from you in the
work and discover that only two jobs are left. The first is using a
direction you were aiming, would you hit the person?
shovel to clean out the cages of the various animals, the second
c) What is the maximum height the bullet reaches?
d) How long will the bullet be in the air?
is to be the "Human Cannonball". You think about your options
for all of 3.2 x 10 -8 seconds and decide that a summer of being
shot out of a cannon is your cup of tea. Looking at the setup you
see that the canon is aimed at an angle of 42° with respect to
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horizontal and the gage on the side indicates that your muzzle
a) Assuming that he was launched at an angle of 53° from the
velocity will be 11.6 m/s.
horizontal, what did his initial speed have to be in order to fly 69
a) How far away from the canon should you place the safety net?
(i.e. what will your range be?)
b) How long will each flight last?
c) What will be your maximum height off of the circus floor?
m?
b) The first Ferris wheel was about 15 m high and was placed 23
m in front of the cannon, by how much did Emanuel clear the top
of the Ferris wheel during his flight?
c) The third Ferris wheel was 46 m in front of the cannon, by how
much did Emanuel clear this wheel?
17. In 1922 one of the Zacchinis, a famous family of circus
performers, was the first human cannonball to be shot across and
arena and into a net. Over time they increased the height and
distance of the flight until in 1939 or 1940, Emanuel Zacchini
soared over three Ferris wheels and through a horizontal distance
of 225 ft (69 m). There is some controversy over these numbers
d) What was his time of flight?
The propulsion in the muzzle of the cannon for his flights was so
severe that he underwent a momentary blackout. If he landed
during the blackout he risked landing in a odd position and
breaking his neck. Emanuel trained himself to wake quickly.
as the current world record for the farthest human cannonball
18. Frustrated with finals, Penelope decides to release her
flight is by David Smith Jr. on March 10, 2011, at Milan in Italy,
tensions by bombarding the wall of the new gym with water
previously held by his father. The father David "Cannonball" Smith
balloons. She fires or at 38° from the horizontal with a speed of
Sr made the previous record of 200 ft 4 in (61.06 m),[2] on August
21.4 m/s. If she stands 13.2 m away from the wall of the gym,
31, 2002, at The Steele County Free Fair, Owatonna, Minnesota in
how far up the building will the water balloon land?
the United States. It is estimated Smith Sr. was travelling at over
70 miles per hour (110 km/h) during the flight. Anyway, assuming
that the numbers for Emanuel’s flight are accurate:
Time to be a general.
Solve this for the asked for variable
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19. A rock is kicked with velocity v off a cliff of height h. The
22. Megan is disgruntled. Working at a fast food restaurant is not
acceleration due to gravity is g.
the glamorous, fun job she thought it would be. She takes a day
a) How long will the rock be in the air?
b) How far from the base of the cliff (d) will it land?
off and finds herself standing at the top of a sheer cliff. She
estimates the height of the cliff to be about 12 m. Megan is 1.6 m
tall. She takes an Egg McMuffin out of her bag and hurls it at 18
m/s at an angle 26° above the horizontal.
a) What are the Egg McMuffin's initial horizontal and vertical
20. A disgruntled auto worker pushes a small foreign import off a
velocities?
22 m high cliff. If the vehicle lands 13 m from the base of the cliff,
how fast was it going when it left the cliff?
b) How long will it be in the air?
c) How far from the cliff's edge will it land?
21. This summer Lisa's job is not as exciting as being the human
23. A projectile is fired vertically at 27 m/s. How long will it be in
cannon ball. Chef at Chez Schad (at the base of Big Baldy), pays
flight if a bird catches it in mid air, while it is falling, 25 m from he
well but the hours are long and the enjoyment is minimal. It is
ground?
Tuesday and Lisa is bored. She decides to crack walnuts by
catapulting them into a wall a distance s away. If her catapult
launches the walnuts with a speed of v and an angle of Ø.
a) What are the initial vertical and horizontal velocities?
b) How long is the projectile in the air?
c) How high up (h) do the walnuts strike the wall?
24. You are standing on top of the White Cliffs of Dover
(remember them) 77 m above the water below.
a) You pick up a small rock and throw it vertically down at 12 m/
s. What will be the time of flight for the rock?
b) You throw the next rock out into the channel. You launch the
rock with an initial velocity of 12 m/s at an angle of 28° above the
horizontal. What will be the time of flight of the rock? How far
from the base of the cliff will the rock land?
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Finally, you decide to throw a rock straight up with a velocity of
Roberta has a head start and is a distance "D" in front of you.
19 m/s. The rock barely clears the edge of the cliff as it comes
You know however that her space buggy can only travel at
down. and it lands with a resounding kersplash as it hits the water
velocity v1. You start from rest and can accelerate with an
at the base of the cliff.
acceleration of a. When will you catch Roberta Baron?
c) How fast is the rock going when it hits the water?
27. Disgusted with Ned (oh the story you could tell.... save it for
d) How long is the rock in the air?
creative writing), you stand at the top of a tall cliff. At your feet is
a small rock whose shape reminds you of Ned's face. You kick
25. A bridge is a height h above the ground and the bridge is on
the rock off of the cliff horizontally with a velocity of vo. What the
a planet whose acceleration due to gravity is g. How long (t) will it
the rock's speed be at time t ?
take a rock to fall if it is released from rest off the bridge? How
long (t) will it take if the rock is thrown up with a velocity vo?
28. This bowling thing is harder than it looks. You launch your 5
kg bowling ball with a velocity of 22 m/s. Unfortunately you "loft"
39. An elephant is thrown at velocity vo at angle ø on level ground
the ball at an angle of 65° above the horizontal. How far down
on a planet where the acceleration due to gravity is g.
the alley will the ball land?
a) What is the elephant's initial vertical velocity (voy)?
29. How fast can you throw a baseball? (your results from the
b) How long will it remain in the air (t)?
c) How far will it go before hitting the ground (d)?
d) What is the elephants initial horizontal velocity (vox)?
e) What is the maximum height the elephant will reach (h)?
baseball toss lab). At what angle should you throw a ball in order
to have a maximum range (distance from you to where the ball
lands)? If you throw a ball at that angle how far will the ball travel
before it hits the ground?
30. You decide to have a water balloon fight in freshman hall (ok
don't really do this). The height of the hall is 3.2 m. You can
throw a water balloon and give it an initial velocity of about 15 m/
s. At what angle should you launch the balloon in order to
26. You are in your space shuttle, trying to catch up with Roberta
maximize the range of the balloon (i.e. so that the balloon just
Baron, a vile thief who specializes in stealing hair scrunchies.
misses the ceiling at the peak of its flight) ? You know that your
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friend Frieda can also throw a balloon at a speed of 15 m/s. How
Twinkie Baseball League you know that you can still hurl a Twinkie
far down the hall should you stand in order to be out of Frieda's
with a speed of 40 m/s.
range?
31. Jan, an inquisitive physics student, decides to investigate the
properties of gravitational fields. She drops a Pepsi machine from
the top of the school. She times the fall of the machine and
determines that it takes 1.6 s to fall.
a) How tall is the building?
She enlists a few of her friends and they push a candy machine
across the roof of the building. The candy machine acquires a
speed of 2.4 m/s before it hurtles over the edge of the roof.
b) How long will it take for the candy machine to hit the dirt?
a) At what angle should you launch your Twinkie in order to hit
Nate?
b) How fast will the Twinkie be going when it hits Ned?
33. Frannie and Ned are cruising in her Lincoln Continental at a
serene 31 m/s. As they pass by a convenience store, a hooded
terrorist jumps out and fires a heat seeking missile at the car. The missile is launched when the car is 200 m past the
convenience store. If the missile steadily accelerates at 17 m/s2,
how many seconds will it take for the missile to reach the tail pipe
of the Lincoln?
c) With what horizontal component of velocity will it hit the dirt?
d) With what vertical velocity does it hit?
e) With what total velocity does it hit?
f) At what angle does it smack into the dirt?
32. There you are holding a Twinkie in your hand, 30 m away from
the dorm. Your intended Twinkie target, Ned, is standing by an
open window. You estimate the distance from the ground to the
middle of the open window is about 8 m. From your years in the
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Fort Pulaski is located on Cockspur Island near Savannah
Georgia. Construction was an engineering challenge as the
weight of the 25,000,000 bricks in the fort had to be supported
on a marshy ground. Pilings were buried 70 feet into the soft
mud and arches constructed on top of the pilings.
Completed in 1847, it was basically unused until 1861 when the
fort was occupied by Confederate forces.
In April of 1862, Union forces under Brigadier General Quincy
Adams Gillmore established a battery of cannons on Tybee
Island. Confederate forces were not concerned as the 2.5 mile
distance from the Union cannons to the fort was more than
traditional cannons could shoot with any type of accuracy.
Unknown to the Confederate forces, the yankees had installed
rifled cannons called Parrot Rifles. By cutting a twisting groove
inside the barrel of the cannons (an interesting engineering
challenge on its own), the cannon projectiles would spin when
in flight, giving the cannon projectile stability.
After 30 hours and more than 5,000 artillery rounds the walls of
the fort were breached. One cannon shot just missed the 20
tons of powder stored at the fort. Considering his position to
be hopeless, Confederate Colonel Charles Olmstead
surrendered.
The rifled cannon established a new era of artillery warfare. The
trajectories of cannon fire was now predictable.
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Fort Pulaski is located on Cockspur Island near Savannah
Georgia.
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