Physics Projectile Motion

Question

Trajectory Describe how forces cause the trajectory of an object launched horizontally to be different from the trajectory of an object launched upward at an angle.

Answer 1

Ignoring wind resistance, the path of an object in projectile motion follows the shape of a parabola. When an object is launched at an upward angle, this parabolic shape is quite apparent; the vertical component of velocity starts off positive, but is constantly decreased due to gravity, eventually becoming negative.

If, however, an object is horizontally launched, this is effectively the same as starting at the top of the parabola. The vertical component starts at zero, and is again increasingly made more and more negative by gravity. We only end up seeing half of the parabola.

Hope that helps.