Question

What is a projectile? Give examples.

Answer 1

Hint: When we hit a cricket ball with a bat, the ball will travel a curved path before finally falling into the ground. This is the basics of a projectile motion. Any particle moving through a curved path with a velocity at an angle to the horizontal will have projectile motion.

Complete step by step answer:
When a particle is thrown at an angle with the earth’s surface, the particle follows a curved path before falling into the ground. This is called the projectile motion. The path that the particle follows is called the projectile and the motion of the particle is called the projectile motion.
In projectile motion, the velocity of the particle can be broken into its component along the x-axis and the y-axis. The velocity along the x-axis gives the horizontal motion of the particle and the velocity of the particle along y-axis gives the vertical motion of the particle.
When the particle moves in the projectile, the only acceleration acting on the particle is the acceleration due to gravity. The acceleration due to gravity acts on the particle in the vertical direction. In the horizontal direction, no acceleration acts on the particle.

 

Consider throwing a ball at angle with the horizontal or the surface of the earth. The ball will travel in a curved path before falling into the ground. This motion is projectile motion and the path the ball travers is called the projectile of the ball.

Note:
We can use the basic kinematic equation on a projectile motion by breaking the velocity of the projectile into its vertical and horizontal components. From this we can find the equation of motion, maximum height, range of the projectile.