A cannonball gets shot out of a cannon. Neglecting air resistance, what is the direction of the acceleration when the cannonball is in the air?

Question

A. The acceleration is pointing in the direction of the cannonball's motion.

B. The acceleration is pointing up.

C. There is no acceleration on the cannonball when it is in the air.

D. The acceleration is pointing either to the right or the left.

E. The acceleration is pointing down

Answer 1

The only acceleration present is down. This is true in many physics questions as once the hall is shot out, it is done accelerating from being shot. That leaves x and y components. The x is not impacted or de accelerated because we were told to ignore air resistance. Howver, in the y, gravity still exists and hence is dragging it downwards with a constant acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. If the cannonball was shooting above ground, then the only acceleration is in the direction of gravity.