Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering I.E.E.
E (ex-INELEC)
Projectile Motion
Forth physics laboratory
Group09:
.Sahraoui Abdellatif
.Haddouche Abdenour
.Karboua Haroun
.Nouar Ilyas
.Hamideche Chouaib
25/11/2023
Dr.CHALA
I. Introduction :
Projectile motion is the motion of an object thrown (projected) into the
air. After the initial force that launches the object, it only experiences the
force of gravity. The object is called a projectile, and its path is called its
trajectory. As an object travels through the air, it encounters a frictional
force that slows its motion called air resistance. but it is ignored during
the calculations to make it easier The most important concept in
projectile motion is that horizontal and vertical motions are independent,
that they don’t influence one another, we can analyze them separately,
along perpendicular axes . To do this, we separate projectile motion into
two components of its motion, one along the horizontal axis and the other
along the vertical one.
We’ll call the horizontal axis the x-axis and the vertical axis the y-axis.
For notation, d is the total displacement, and x and y are its components
along the trajectory. we will use the horizontal distance traveled and the
kinematic equation to determine the actual speed with projectile emerge.
Objectives :
The purpose of this experiment is to predict and verify the range of a ball
launched at an angle The initial speed of the ball is determined by
shooting it horizontally and measuring the range of the ball and the height
of the Launcher .
Procedure :
1. Materials :
Safety Glasses , Balls , 2-D collision Accessory , Ramrod , Projectile
Launcher , Base .
1. Steps :
a. Set up :
Clamp the projectile Launcher to a study table or other horizontal
surface . Mount the Launcher near one end of the table
Adjust the angle of the Projectile Launcher to zero degrees so the
ball will be launched horizontally .
b. Part A : Determining the Initial Horizontal Speed of the Ball .
Put a plastic ball in the Projectile Launcher and use the ramrod to
cock it at the long-range position . Fire one shot to locate where
the ball hits the floor . Place a piece of carbon paper ( carbon side
down ) on top of the white paper and tape it in place .
When the ball hits the carbon paper on the floor , it will
leave a mark on the white paper.
Fire ten shots .
Measure the vertical distance from the bottom of the ball as it
leaves the barrel to the floor . Record this distance in Data Table.
The “ Launcher Position of Ball ’’ in the barrel is marked
on the label on the side of the Launcher .
Use a plumb bob to find the point on the floor that is directly
beneath the release point on the barrel .
Measure the horizontal distance along the floor from the release
point to the leading edge of the piece of white paper . Record the
distance in the data table .
Carefully remove the carbon paper and measure from the leading
edge of the white paper to each of the ten dots . Record these
distances in the data table and find the average . Calculate and
record the total horizontal distance ( distance to paper plus
average distance from the edge of the paper to dots ).
Using the vertical distance , y , and the total horizontal distance ,
x , calculate the time of flight , t , and the initial horizontal speed
of the ball , v . Record the time and speed in the Data
table .
c. Part B : Predicting the Range of a Ball Shot at an Angle
Adjust the angle of the Projectile Launcher to an angle between
30 and 60 degrees. Record this angle in the second Data Table.
Using the initial speed and vertical distance from the first part of
this experiment, calculate the new time of flight and the new
horizontal distance based on the assumption that the ball is shot
at the new angle you have just selected. Record the predictions
in the second Data Table.
Draw a line across the middle of a white piece of paper and tape
the paper on the floor So that the line on the paper is at the
predicted horizontal distance from the Projectile Launcher. Cover
the white paper with carbon paper (carbon side down) and tape
the carbon paper in place.
Shoot the ball ten times.
Carefully remove the carbon paper. Measure the distances to the
ten dots and record the distances in the second Data Table .
Data :
Part A Data :(Initial velocity)
The vertical distances from the bottom of the ball to the floor and the
horizontal one from the release point o the leading edge of the white paper:
angle 0°
y 0
127cm
x 0
119cm
The final Data table ( after calculating time and speed ) :
angle 0°
y0 127cm
x0 119cm
t0 0.537s
v0 2.834m/s
Part B Data :(Predicted range)
The second data table :
angle time(s) x(predicted) x(measured)
30 0.67 164.4 162.05
45 0.75 150 148
60 0.81 114 111.68
I. Results :
Part A results :
Finding the total horizontal distance :
The distances from the white paper :
x 1 x 2 x 3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 x10
3.5c 7.1cm 5.8c 7.3cm 7.4c 7.8cm 7.9cm 9.2c 10.1cm 6.3cm
m m m m
Finding the average :
x x +x2+x3+x4+x5+x6+x7+x8+x9+x1010
avg = 1
x 3.5+7.1+5.8+7.3+7.4+7.8+7.9+9.2+10.1+6.310
avg =
x 7.24 cm
avg =
the total horizontal distance is :
x=x +x 0 avg
x = 119+ 7.24 = 126.24 cm
Calculating the time of flight and the initial horizontal speed :
the angle = 0° which leads us to the following :
x 1
{ v0 = t …(1) y= 2 gt 2…(2)
From (2) we can find t :
while : y : is the vertical distance .
t= 2y
√ g
g : is the earth gravity .
√ √
−2
t= 2 y = 2∗127∗10 =¿0.51s
g 9.81
Now we can calculate v0 :
−2
x 126.24∗10
v0= t = = 2.48m/s .
0.51
The final Data table ( after calculating time and speed ) :
angle 0°
y 0 127cm
x 0 119cm
t 0 0.51 s
v 0 2.48 m/s
Part B results :
-Calculating the time of flight for each angle :
−1 2
y= g t +¿ v0t sin θ+ y0
2
when the ball reaches the floor :
−1 2
0= g t +¿ v0t sin θ+ y0
2
We solve the quadratic equation to get t for each angle :
when θ= 30° :
−1 2
0= g t +¿ v0t sin(30)+ y0
2
t=0.65s
when θ = 45°
−1 2
0= g t +¿ v0t sin(45)+ y0
2
t=0.72s
when θ =60
−1 2
0= g t +¿ v0t sin(60)+ y0
2
t=0.77s
-Calculating the horizontal distances theoretically :
when θ= 0° :
x= v0t cos 0
x=2.48*0.51*cos(0)=1.26m
when θ = 30° :
x= v0t cos30=1.09m
when θ = 45° :
x= v0t cos45=0.89m
when θ = 60° :
x= v0t cos60=0.63m
Finding the x for each angle :
avg
The shot x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x 6 x7 x8 x9 x10
30° 7.7 9.8 9.9 9.8 13. 13.7 13. 14.4 14. 16.5
2 6 6
45° 16. 15.1 15. 15.5 16. 16.8 16. 16.0 15. 15.1
4 7 4 6 8
60° 15. 16.5 18. 18.4 18. 19.9 20. 23 16. 16.8
8 9 8 3 7
When θ= 30° :
x 1+ x 2+ x 3+ x 4+ x 5+ x 6 + x 7+ x 8+ x 9+ x 10
xavg =
10
x 12.32 cm
avg =
When θ= 45° :
x 1+ x 2+ x 3+ x 4+ x 5+ x 6 + x 7+ x 8+ x 9+ x 10
xavg =
10
x 15.94 cm
avg =
When θ= 60° :
x 1+ x 2+ x 3+ x 4+ x 5+ x 6 + x 7+ x 8+ x 9+ x 10
x avg =
10
x 18.51 cm
avg =
-Finding the total horizontal distance experimentally :
when θ= 30° :
x= x + x =119+12.32=131.32cm
0 avg
when θ= 45° :
x = x + x =119+15.94=134.94cm
0 avg
when θ= 60° :
x = x + x =119+18.51=137.51cm
0 avg
I. Analysis :
1. calculating the percent of the error between the predicted theoretical
distance and the actual average distance when shot at each angle :
angle xexp xtheor
30° 164.4cm 162.05cm
45° 150cm 148cm
60° 114cm 111.68cm
when θ= 30° :
|theoritical−actual| 162.05−164.4
Error = *100= 162.05
∗100=¿ 1.45%
theoritical
when θ= 45° :
|theoritical−actual| 148−150
Error = *100= 148
*100=1.35%
theoritical
when θ= 60° :
|theoritical−actual| 111.68−114
Error = *100= 111.68
∗100=2.1%
theoritical
I. Conclusion :
Projectile motion is a sort of two-D motion with ( x,y ) component of
motion and constant acceleration with gravity . the experiment allowed us
to realize our purpose which is to calculate the initial speed and predict
the range of a Ball shot at an angle by using the theory laws , then
calculate the actual average distance experimentally by following the
previous steps . there was a percent of error of (4.49℅) because of the
slight misplacement of the ball or slight in the tap measure during the
experiment also may shift the paper minimally after two hitting of the ball
on the ground . however this experiment still serves its purpose to allow
the investigation of projectile motion.
