gm

Name:_____________________________ Date:__________________________ Pd._______

W6.1: Projectile Motion Problems

*In all these questions ignore air resistance unless otherwise stated.*

Mild: Falling

1. A body falls freely from rest on Earth. Find:

A) Its displacement at t = 3s B) The time for it to reach a speed of 25 ms-1

Answer: 44.1m Answer: 2.6s

C) The time required for it to fall 300 m D) Its speed after falling 70 m

Answer: 7.8s Answer: 37 ms-1

2. Repeat question 1 for a body falling freely on the moon. The acceleration due to gravity there is 1.7 ms-2

A) Its displacement at t = 3s B) The time for it to reach a speed of 25 ms-1

Answer: 7.7m Answer: 14.7s

C) The time required for it to fall 300 m D) Its speed after falling 70 m

Answer: 18.8s Answer: 15.4 ms-1

 3. A student throws his lab notebook off a 120 m high bridge with an initial downward speed of 10 m/s

a. How long does it take the notebook to hit the b. How fast is it going at the moment of impact?
ground below? (requires the quadratic formula)

Answer: 4.03s Answer: 49.5 ms-1

4. When a kid drops a rock off the edge of a cliff, it takes 4.0 s to reach the ground below. When she throws the
rock down, it strikes the ground in 3.0 s. What initial speed did she give the rock?

Answer: 11.4 ms-1

Medium: Falling when launched (no angle)

1. Given the following situation of a marble in motion on a table with

negligible drag force:

a. Sketch and label force diagrams for the marble both b. Determine the horizontal range of the marble as it
when it is on the table and off the table. falls to the floor.

Answer: 5.5m

2. If the table in part one were 3.0 m high (so we have doubled the height), and the sphere was traveling with a velocity
of 10 m/s while on the table determine each of the following....

a) Sketch and label force diagrams for the marble both b) Determine the horizontal range of the marble as it falls
when it is on the rail and off the rail. to the floor. Explain your method for solving this problem.
 Answer: 7.8m

c) What effect did doubling the height have on the range of the marble? What other factors affect the range of the
sphere?

3. A horizontally-flying plane drops a package from 500m in the air, and the package lands 400m horizontally from the
initial dropping point. How fast was the plane flying when the package was released?

Answer: 39.6 ms-1

4. In many locations, old abandoned stone quarries have become filled with water once excavating has been completed.
While standing on a quarry wall, a boy tosses a piece of granite into the water below. If he throws the ball horizontally
with a velocity of 3.0 m/s, and it strikes the water 4.5 m away, how high above the water is the wall?

Answer: 11.0m

5. A student finds that it takes 0.20s for a ball to pass through photogates placed 30
cm apart on a level ramp. The end of the ramp is 92 cm above the floor. Where
should a coin be placed so that the ball strikes it directly on impact with the ground?

Answer: 0.65 m away or 65 cm away

6. Suppose now that the same ball, released from the same ramp (92 cm high) struck a coin placed 25 cm from the end
of the ramp.

a. What was the ball's horizontal velocity? b. How long did it take for the ball to pass through the
photogates?
 Answer: 0.58 ms-1 Answer: 0.52s

Medium IB problems

IB 1. This question is about projectile motion.

A small steel ball is projected horizontally from the edge of a bench. Flash photographs of the ball are taken
at 0.10 s intervals. The resulting images are shown against a scale as in the diagram below.

(a) Use the diagram to determine

(i) the constant horizontal speed of the ball.

...........................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................
(2)

(ii) the acceleration of free fall.

...........................................................................................................................
 ...........................................................................................................................
(2)

(b) Mark on the diagram the position of the ball 0.50 s after projection.

In the space below, you should carry out any calculations so that you can accurately position the ball.

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................
(3)

(c) A second ball is projected from the bench at the same speed as the original ball. The ball has small
mass so that air resistance cannot be neglected. Draw on the diagram the approximate shape of the path
you would expect the ball to take.
(3)
(Total 10 marks)

IB 2. This question is about projectile motion.

A stone is thrown horizontally from the top of a vertical cliff of height 33 m as shown below.

The initial horizontal velocity of the stone is 18 m s–1 and air resistance may be assumed to be negligible.

(a) State values for the horizontal and for the vertical acceleration of the stone.

Horizontal acceleration: ............................................................................................

Vertical acceleration: ................................................................................................

(2)

(b) Determine the time taken for the stone to reach sea level.

...................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................
 ...................................................................................................................................
(2)

(c) Calculate the distance of the stone from the base of the cliff when it reaches sea level.

...................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................
(1)

Spicy: Launched at an angle

1. A shotput is thrown. For each of the indicated positions

of the shotput along its trajectory, draw and label the
following vectors: the x-component of the velocity, the
y-component of the velocity, and the acceleration. Explain
why you drew the vectors as you did.

2. Two tennis ball launchers shoot balls at the same time, angle and initial speed from
different floors of a tall building. The balls land in the street below. Ignore air resistance. 
 

a) Which ball will have the greater acceleration while in b) Which ball will hit farther from the base of the
flight? Explain your reasoning. building? Explain your reasoning.

c) Which ball will reach a greater maximum height? d) Which ball will be going faster just before hitting the
Explain your reasoning. street? Explain your reasoning.
2. A rock is thrown with an initial vertical velocity component of 30 m/s and an initial horizontal velocity component of
40 m/s.

a) What will these velocity components be one second b) Assuming the launch and landing heights are the same,
after the rock reaches the top of its path? how long will the rock be in the air?

Answer: Vertical: -9.8 ms/s, horizontal: 40 m/s Answer: 6.1s

c) Assuming the launch and landing heights are the same, how far will the rock land from where it was thrown?

Answer: 244m

3. At t=0, a ball is thrown with an initial velocity of magnitude 15m/s at 75° to the horizontal (upwards)

a) Calculate the magnitudes of the vertical and horizontal b) Calculate the magnitude of the vertical component of
components of its initial velocity. velocity of the ball at t=0.5s.

Answer: Vertical: 14.5 m/s Horizontal: 3.9 m/s Answer: 9.6 m/s

c) Calculate the magnitude of the vertical component of d) What is the magnitude of the horizontal component of
velocity of the ball at t=2.0s. Which way is the ball velocity at t=2.0s?
moving at this time?

Answer: 5.1 m/s down Answer: 3.9 m/s

4. A projectile is thrown upwards at 60° to the horizontal with an initial speed of 30ms-1, calculate

a) The time taken for the projectile to reach the top of its b) the range of the projectile (the horizontal distance
trajectory moved over a horizontal surface)

Answer: 2.7s Answer: 81 m

 5. A ball is thrown upwards at 50° to the horizontal with an initial speed of 15ms-1.

a) Calculate the magnitude of its (total) velocity at 0.5 b) Calculate the magnitude of its (total) velocity when it is
seconds. at its maximum height.

Answer: 11.6 m/s Answer: 9.6 m/s

c) Calculate the magnitude of its (total) velocity at a time of 2.2 seconds

Answer: 13.9 m/s

Extra Spicy: Launched at an angle, multi-step problems

1. A daredevil tries to jump a canyon of width 10 m. To do so, he

drives his motorcycle up an incline sloped at an angle of 15
degrees. What minimum speed is necessary to clear the canyon?

Answer: 14 m/s

2. An athlete throws the shotput with an initial velocity of 14 m/s at a 40° angle from the horizontal. The shotput leaves
his hand at a height of 2.2 m above the ground. Calculate the distance the shotput traveled.

Answer: 22.1m