UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIAN SPANISH INSTITUTE

NAME : NUR ALIESYA BINTI ABDUL MUIN

ID : 54220119079

COURSE : BEME

DATE : 8TH OCTOBER 2020

TITLE : PROJECTILE MOTION

LECTURER’S NAME : DR.NAJIB

1.0 OBJECTIVE

1. To investigate characteristics of projectile motion such as velocity and acceleration.

2. To investigate the effect of mass to the velocity and acceleration in projectile motion.

2.0 THEORY

For this experiment, we will investigate it at two directions which is x-axis and y-axis
direction. For acceleration at y-axis, it will be represented by the force of gravity (downwards
acceleration) and for the x-axis, its acceleration is zero. This will be represented in equation
form as;

ax = 0

ay = -g

Above is the example of projectile motion, moving in y-axis and x-axis. The equation will be;

At time t=0, the x and y expressed as x0 and y0 and the velocity expressed as v0x and v0y.
While g is the gravitational pull (constant value).

In projectile motion, it has a point where the object reaches the maximum height, h and is
known as the apex of its motion. At this point, the vy = 0.

Then, we will substitute the tapex with t and taking h as the height at where y=0.
Now we will look at the velocity as the magnitude of velocity known as speed, v = |v| and
also the angle, θ from horizontal. Therefore, its trigonometry will give equation such as;
3.0 APPARATUS

- 4 objects with different weights

- Stopwatch

- Ruler

4.0 PROCEDURES

1. 4 objects with different weights were chosen and their weights were determined.

2. The object was drop from the same height and its time taken to reach on the floor was
taken.

3. The object was thrown up in vertical direction and its time taken for the object to come
back to its initial position was taken.

4. Then we change the object with the other one that has different weights and steps 2 and 3
were repeated.

5. The kinematics of objects such as position, velocity and acceleration were calculated.

5.0 OBSERVATIONS

Objects Heights Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Average

(g) (mm) (ms) (ms) (ms) (ms)

1 472 00:00:26 00:00:27 00:00:26 00:00:26

2 472 00:00:23 00:00:25 00:00:26 00:00:24

3 472 00:00:16 00:00:24 00:00:28 00:00:22

4 472 00:00:17 00:00:18 00:00:18 00:00:17

 Remarks:

Object 1 = 940g

Object 2 = 1038g

Object 2 = 1174.8g

Object 2 = 1500g

Mass Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Average

(g) (ms) (ms) (ms) (ms)
136 00:00:71 00:00:75 00:00:66 00:00:71

98.8 00:00:69 00:00:72 00:00:78 00:00:73

1250 00:00:80 00:00:77 00:00:75 00:00:77

6.0 DISCUSSION

When an object moves in a bilaterally symmetrical, parabolic path, it is moving in the

projectile form of a motion. Where the path is called as its trajectory. Furthermore, for
projectile motion to occur, it must have one force applied at the beginning of the trajectory
and its only interference is the gravitational force.

There were several components in projectile motion. For example, the time of flight
in projectile motion. Time of flight is the time taken from when the object is projected until it
reaches the surface. For time of flight, it depends on the angle of the projectile and also on the
initial velocity magnitude.

On top of that, we must take note that in projectile motion, there were no such things
as the acceleration in the horizontal direction. It only has acceleration in the vertical direction
which is the gravitational force also known as free fall and must be in negative value since it
is against the direction of y-axis. Also because of this, the vertical velocity will be different
linearly since its acceleration is constant. As for the horizontal velocity, it will remains
constant.

Next, based on the result of the experiment that has been carried out, it is impossible
to get a perfect result without any errors on it. This is because, human error will contribute
major factor into the errors. The error that could have happened is the mistakes while taking
the time. For this experiment, we lack of apparatus to aid us in the process. For example, we
were not provided with stopwatch. Therefore, we must take the time using our smartphone
which sometimes might have error in it and the time taken might not be as accurate as it
should be.

Other than that, we used objects that were not uniform in its weight differences. We
chose random objects in the lab and measure their weights manually. There might be some
errors in their weight as well since we does not use specific object that were specialized for
this experiment.
7.0 CONCLUSIONS

From this experiment, we got to learn how the characteristics of projectile motion such as its
velocity and acceleration works and also how the object’s mass affected its velocity and
acceleration.

8.0 REFERENCES

1. Dietmar Gross, Werner Hauger, Jörg Schröder, Wolfgang A. Wall, Javier Bonet.(2020).
‘Mechanics of Materials’, 2th edition. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

2. The Physic Classroom, TPC. (2017). What is a Projectile. Retrieved from

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/vectors/Lesson-2/What-is-a-Projectile#:~:text=A
%20projectile%20is%20an%20object%20upon%20which%20the%20only%20force%20is
%20gravity.&text=Due%20to%20the%20absence%20of,upon%20a%20projectile%20is
%20gravity!

3. The Physic Classroom, TPC. (2017). Describing Projectiles With Numbers: (Horizontal
and Vertical Velocity). Retrieved from
https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/vectors/Lesson-2/Horizontal-and-Vertical-
Components-of-Velocity#:~:text=A%20projectile%20is%20any%20object%20upon
%20which%20the%20only%20force%20is%20gravity%2C&text=There%20is%20a
%20vertical%20acceleration,independent%20of%20its%20vertical%20motion.