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  • Steven Nikolov

Demonstrations of Projectile Motion

During this activity, physics students were able to see the differences and similarities of projectile motion and vertical motion. To demonstrate this, Mr. Tautges set up a device which supports two metal balls of equal size and releases them at the same time as seen below.



When the device was triggered, one of the balls was pushed off and the other fell straight down. The students then observed what happened and saw that the two balls hit the ground at the exact same time.


This is because gravity equally affects a dropped object and an object projected horizontally from the same height. Horizontal motion has no effect on vertical motion so therefore, the two balls will hit the floor at the same time no matter how strongly one is projected as long as they begin at the same height.


This demonstration along with some videos we watched showed us that vertical motion is accelerated by gravity, so vertical displacements increase with

time. To add on, horizontal motion is at a constant velocity, so horizontal displacements are equal.

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