Projectile motion – trajectory and air resistance

PhysicsKinematicsAges 15–16

Four screens explore projectile motion: Intro lets you set the launch height, launch angle, initial speed and projectile to hit a target; Vectors shows the velocity components, the resultant velocity and the acceleration at any point on the trajectory; Air Resistance compares paths with and without drag for different projectiles and altitudes above sea level; Lab lets you customise the mass, diameter, drag coefficient and acceleration due to gravity. A tape measure measures distances, a probe reads the time, range and height at any point on the path, and several trajectories stay on screen for comparison. Based on the "Projectile Motion" simulation by PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder (CC BY 4.0); rewritten.

Lesson: Projectile motion