Projectile Motion Lab
Julia Banning, Megan Nanovic, and Taya Wentz
October 20, 2015
Julia Banning, Megan Nanovic, and Taya Wentz
October 20, 2015
Purpose:
We will explore the motion of a projectile by measuring the initial velocity. Then, from the initial velocity, the angle of the launcher and various equations, we can predict a range for the projectile. Experimental Technique: Analysis: Range Equation Percent Difference
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Theory:
In order to determine the range of the projectile based of the initial velocity and angle of the launcher, we utilized the equations of R=Voxt and Voy=Vo(sin)θ based on the graph shown: Data/Continued Experimental Technique: For this experiment, we set up a projectile launcher and chose an angle to shoot our projectile at; the angle chosen was 27 degrees. Then, we set up a photo gate sensor to discovery the initial velocity of the projectile, which was 5.22 m/s. Once we found that, we measured the distance of the bottom of the tip of the launcher to the ground directly below, which ended up to be .808 m. This information then allowed us to predict a range for the projectile by using the equation above; the predicted range was 3.35 m. We then shot the projectile ten times to determine how accurate our predicted range was. The average range of the ten projectiles ended up to be 3.344 m.
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Conclusion:
During this lab, we shot a projectile at a certain range to determine if the range that we predicted according to the height of the launcher and the angle of it was correct. The uncertainty of the range measurement resulted to be .032 meters, which equals 3.2 centimeters. My predicted range was 3.35 m, while the measured range turned out to be 3.344 m. The percent difference of the ranges resulted in only 0.119%, meaning that my predicted range was relatively close to the actual range. Various sources of error could have skewed the results, such as parallax error while measuring the distance of the launcher from the ground, setting the launcher at a slightly different angle each time, setting the paper down at the wrong location, or failure to account for a certain factor. I do not believe wind resistance was a factor during this specific experiment because the projectile moved at a relatively fast speed and was dense. The projectile was fired in a room, so the wind flow was minimal, which means the ball's motion would not be impacted. Overall, this lab taught us that the predicted range of an object can be very close to the actual range if the measurements were correct and precise.
References:
Giancoli, Douglas C.
Physics: principles with application / Douglas C. Giancoli
5th edition
Lahsphysics.weebly.com