Describe The Process And Results Of Accurately Landing A Projectile At A Desired Distance

Understanding projectile motion is important in athletics and bioengineering because it helps in understanding the motion of objects. For athletes this is useful in improving their game, and for bioengineers it is helpful in designing equipment where projectiles maybe involved. Projectile motion is easy to understand and the position and velocity of a particle at any point along its trajectory can be determined using kinematics equations, by breaking the trajectory down into horizontal and vertical components, then using them simultaneously to solve for the unknown variable. The purpose of this memo is to describe the process and results of accurately landing a projectile at a desired distance

First the launcher was set to an angle of 40 degrees. Then test launches were done to see approximately where the ball landed on the floor. A piece of carbon paper was then placed in that area. And the launcher and paper were secured in place. The horizontal distance, S_fixed was then measured between thee front edge of the launcher and the carbon paper. We then executed teen launches where

With the initial velocity, the launch angle required for the ball travel a horizontal distance of 3.2m with a height of 0.15m was determined. The horizontal and vertical equation for velocity and distance were derived using the known values of acceleration, and initial velocity. Then the values of the horizontal distance and height were plugged into the equations and using substitution of variables the launch angle was found. The full calculations for the initial velocity and launch angle can be found in attachment