Examples of Projectile Motion

Example: A rifle is aimed horizontally at a target 30m away. The bullet hits the
target 1.9 cm below the aiming point. (a) What is the bullets time of flight? (b) What is the muzzle velocity?

Figure 3.1: Bullet hits target 1.9 cm below the aiming point.

Answer:
(a) First, we define our coordinates. I will use the coordinate system indicated in Fig. 3.1, where the origin is placed at the tip of the gun. Then we have x0 = 0 and y0 = 0. We also know the acceleration: ax = 0 and ay = 9.80 m/s2 = g What else do we know? The gun is fired horizontally so that v0y = 0, but we dont know v0x. We dont know the time of flight but we do know that when x has the value 30 m then y has the value 1.9 102 m. (Minus!)

Example: You throw a ball with a speed of 25.0 m/s at an angle of 40.0o above the horizontal directly toward a wall, as shown in Fig. 3.3. The wall is 22.0m from the release point of the ball. (a) How long does the ball take to reach the wall? (b) How far above the release point does the ball hit the wall? (c) What are the horizontal and vertical components of its velocity as it hits the wall? (d) When it hits, has it passed the highest point on its trajectory?

Figure 3.3: Ball is thrown toward wall at 40.0o above horizontal. Answer:

Example: The launching speed of a certain projectile is five times the speed it has at its maximum height. Calculate the elevation angle at launching.

Figure 3.4: Motion of projectile in Example We make a diagram of the projectiles motion in Fig. 3.4. The launch it speed is v0, and the projectile is launched at an angle 0 upward from the horizontal. We might start this problem by solving for the time it takes the projectile to get to maximum height, but we can note that at maximum height, there is no y velocity component, and

Uniform Circular Motion

Example: A stone is tied to a 0.50 m string and rotated at a constant speed of 2.0 m/s in a vertical circle. Its acceleration at the bottom of the circle is: Answer: In general
a= v 2 22 = = 8 m/s 2 r 0.5

At the bottom of the circle the acceleration will be pointed to the center, i.e. up. Example: An object is moving in a circular path of radius meters at constant speed of 4.0 m/s. The time required for one revolution (periodic time) is: Answer: circumference 2 r 2 2
T = speed = v = 4 = 2 s

Example: If the moon makes a complete circle around the earth in 29 days (= 2.5 10 s) and the distance between the center of earth and the center of the moon is 3.8 x10 m, then the magnitude of centripetal acceleration on the moon is: Answer:
2 r 2 r v = v T 2 2 r 2 v 4 2 r 4 2 3.8 108 T = = 2 = a= 2.5 106 r r T = 2.4 103 m/s 2 T =
8

Relative Velocity
Example: Two boats A and B leave seaport at the same time. Boat A travels at a speed of 10.0 m/s in the +x direction and boat B heads at an angle of 60.0 with the x-axis at a speed of 10.0 m/s. The velocity of A relative to B is:

Answer:

i 10 cos 60o i + sin 60o j V AB =V A V B = 10 i 8.66 j =5

Example: Ship A travels 40 km/h in a direction of 30 West of North and ship B travels 60 East of North at 30 km/h. What is the magnitude of the velocity of ship A relative to ship B? N A B
30
o

60o

Answer:
V BA =V B V A ,

V A = 40 sin 30o i + 40cos30o j = 20 i + 34.6 j V B = 30 cos30o i + 30sin 30o j = 26 i + 15 j

Then

V BA =V B V A = 46 i 19.6 j

V BA = 50

km h

Example: A river is flowing 0.20 m/s east. A boat in this river has a speed of 0.40 m/s directed 60 south of east relative to the earth. Find the velocity of the boat relative to the river.( Ans: 0.35 m/s, south)

Answer: