Experiment On Projectile Motion Essay, Research Paper

On Tuesday the 1st of February in the year two thousand the Physics 37 class performed an experiment on projectile motion. First the class divided it?s self in to groups of three or more members. The class was then thought how to us the equipment and the devices. The equipment and devices consisted of a ballistic pendulum apparatus, plain white and carbon paper, spirit level, short support rod, one and two meter sticks, large cardboard and a metric ruler. Other equipment and devices consisted of an inclinometer, catch box, ?C? clamp, plumb bob, wooden board, clamp and rob for inclined plane.

For the first part of the experiment the gun was placed on a table and firmly clamped to it. The ballistic gun was fired as a trial shot. The cardboard was then placed were then projectile had hit the ground. On top of the cardboard the carbon paper and the plain paper were taped to record the exact point of impact. Then the box was placed behind the sheets of paper to catch the projectile. Once the box was taped down firmly, six shoots were fired. Then the range of each shoot was accurately measure. These measurements were then placed on a table. After this the height from the floor to the bottom of the ball was measured by using a plumb bob. This data was then place on the table as delta Y or also known as the vertical displacement of the ball. The vertical displacement was 0.8850. Then the time of flight was calculated and came out to be 0.425. From this and the average length of the fight ball the initial velocity was found. The Initial velocity was calculated as being 6.546.

In the second part of the experiment the spring gun was clamped to the board at a 15 degree angle. This was measure precisely with the inclinometer. Next then height from the bottom of the ball to the floor was measured (in the same way as the first part of the experiment). It came out to be 0.9580. A practice shoot was fired the cardboard place down as was in the first part of the experiment. It was then repeated five times and measure. With this data the average measurement was calculated. It was found to be 3.957. From there the percentage difference between the measured and calculated range was found and the results were compared.

This experiment was done to determine the initial velocity of a projectile from the range and time-of-flight measurements. To do this the equations of motion were used to predict the point of impact of the projectile. This experiment was a success.