Air Trajectory : Gravitational Energy And Projectiles

This catapult project exemplifies and strengthened my current knowledge of parabolas that we have learned during class. Using our skills, my group - Katrina, Brandon, Michelle, and I - created an interesting catapult which would thrust a ping pong ball across creating an upside down “U” shape, also known as a parabola. During our time as a group, we learned to create our own equation, create a graph and table, but also learn from our mistakes by trying to make the ping pong’s “journey” consistent. Not only this, but we worked together as a team to get this task done.

The air also affects the flight of a soccer ball. In the air there are little particles known as air molecules. They move around at a certain speed and the amount of air pressure comes when the air molecules are forced against a certain object (NASA, 2004).

You then take scissors or a knife and cut one hole on the side of the turkey baster or car filler. The car filler/ turkey baster should be facing upwards with the open end of the turkey baster facing up with the handmade hole on the side of it. Then you take apart the spark igniter and reassemble it in the turkey baster or car filler so that the part you spin to create the spark is the only part sticking out of the handmade hole. That is when you use the screwdriver and wrench to take apart and put back together the spark igniter. The cannon is finished when the spark igniter is properly assembled and is able to create a spark. To finish the experiment you then need to add ten to fifteen drops of rubbing alcohol inside of the turkey baster or car filler. When you are in a safe open area where no one is around you can then spin the spark igniter knob really fact to create a spark with the rubbing alcohol and launch the ball out of the cannon. The cannon won’t work properly if there is a dent in the ball. The ball won’t launch if there is a dent because the dent allows oxygen to get into the cannon and the combustion won’t work

After it is released, the projectile obeys the laws of projectile motion, disregarding air resistance. Therefore, the range of the ballista can be given by the equation

By using a 1 meter ruler to measure the bounce height in centimeters. Video footage will also be utilised to measure the bounce correctly by watching the film in slow motion.

Ever since I was little I was amazed at the ability for a machine to fly. I have always wanted to explore ideas of flight and be able to actually fly. I think I may have found my childhood fantasy in the world of aeronautical engineering. The object of my paper is to give me more insight on my future career as an aeronautical engineer. This paper was also to give me ideas of the physics of flight and be to apply those physics of flight to compete in a high school competition.

The development of sports science in recent times has allowed athletes to prepare for this Olympiad using technology beyond their predecessors' wildest dreams.

As I grew older I was fortunate enough to make my school’s Science Olympiad team, and even more fortunate to win two consecutive national championships with them before my freshman year of high school had even ended. In this group of

In my first Physics class ever--let alone my first AP Physics class--I learned about a topic called projectile motion. It sounded simple in theory. Due to some of my sports knowledge, I quickly grasped the visual concepts of projectile objects. The most important takeaway is that there are many variables that affect projectiles. The trajectory, materials, launcher size, wind and much more can change where the projectile lands or how far it goes. So, I teamed up with a partner and we began formulating a simple catapult we can make based off of an experiment he did last year. Thus, we constructed a small launcher made up of wooden popsicle sticks, rubber bands, plastic spoons and duct tape. We took out a meter stick and laid it out onto a flat surface. We used a cork as the projectile and began to launch it over several trials, making various modifications to the launcher for each trial. One person measured how far it went as the other launched it. The most important piece of information I took away from our project was that any modification made to the catapult will change the results, thus proving that projectile motion has so many variables

Aerodynamics is the study of properties of moving air, and especially of the interaction between the air and solid bodies moving through it. Our guiding question was “ Which design yields the Paper Airplane that travels the furthest?” For us to have a good plane we had to make sure that we took these types of aerodynamics into consideration, drag, gravity, thrust, and lift. Drag is the resistance against something when moving through the air. The next type is gravity, this will affect the item based on the weight of it, the heavier something is the more pressure it will have pushing down on it. These last two go together, thrust and lift. Thrust is the initial boost that comes from the strength of the thing that putting it in the air, and lift is when something below is pushing hard then the same exact thing above.

As written in this essay, you will learn if balanced or unbalanced forces cause a change in velocity. By many articles and life examples, this essay will defend and evaluate the claim using evidence and reasoning on why unbalanced forces cause a change in velocity. The claim will be supported by a law of physics, a textbook excerpt, and the process of skydiving.

Have you ever dreamed about going up into space feeling the weightlessness without gravity? While not everyone can have such an opportunity, there are still places that ignore the rules of gravity. Gravity hills allow all types of objects to travel uphill. What are they? How do they work? If you park your car at the bottom of these roads, then place it in neutral, your car will begin to travel upward. The same process works for water, tennis balls, pop cans or basically anything. Gravity hills seem like a dream come true, but this is all just smoke and mirrors, an optical illusion.

Air resistance is the frictional force that an object has on air. Friction is resistance of an object’s surface. The amount of air resistance an object has is reflected on the speed of the object that has been dropped. Weight does not affect how fast an object falls. A plastic bag weighs about 5.5 grams. A piece of printer paper weighs about 4.5 grams. A handkerchief weighs about 3 ounces per square yard. Gravity drops all objects in the same was regardless of their mass or build structure (kidsdiscover.com). Gravity is the force pulling down an object that comes in the way. Acceleration is the change of speed or direction. The amount of mass something has is its weight which determines the amount of a downward gravity force it experiences. A falling object will continue to accelerate until air resistance force becomes more to balance the force that's bringing the object (physicsclassroom.com). Isaac Newton’s 1st law of motion; an object has to stay in place unless it comes in contact with another object which causes force or a push for the objects to start to move.

The concept of air resistance simple. It is a force created when an object moves through air particles suspended in the atmosphere. Because these particles have a mass, there must be a force needed to move each particle out of the way. Even though the force needed to move each particle is minuscule by itself, the sum of the forces for particles can greatly influence a flying object. On page 69 of The Science of Everyday Things, the author writes about drag forces and air resistance by stating, “In the real world, air resistance creates a powerful drag force on falling objects. The faster the rate of fall, the greater the drag force, until the air resistance forces a

Drag is the aeronautical term for the air resistance encounter by an object in motion. Drag acts in the inverse direction to the objects movement through the air as it constrains its movement and acts parallel to the relative wind stream.