Projectile Motion Reflection on Learning

     In our most recent lab, we performed an experiment which helped us to better understand what a projectile is and which forces are acting on it. We began by taking a basketball and shooting it into the air at an angle. By taking a video of this, we were able to create some graphs and visual images that would help us understand the ball's pattern in the air. 

      These screenshots show graphs that each give different information about the projectile (basketball). The two bottom graphs in particular show the velocity of the ball in relation to the amount of time it was in the air (Vx and Vy).  The bottom right graph shows us a line which crosses the X-axis at some point. Looking on the graph, we see that it crosses the axis at around 2.5 seconds. This is the exact time at which the ball is at its peak. It has stopped going up and has not yet started falling down. 

      I think the most important concept I learned from this lab was that all projectiles only have one force acting on them. In this case the force was gravity. All of our work is shown below on our whiteboard: