Ema Condori-Teves

11/26/16
B4

Projectile Motion
The purpose of this lab was understand projectile motion, in our case to predict exactly where the
dart will hit the floor when you shoot the nerf gun when given a specific degree and height to
shoot it at, but to do this we first needed to find the muzzle velocity of the nerf gun, which is the
velocity at which the dart leaves the nerf gun. We are only allowed to shoot the nerf gun when
finding the muzzle velocity, then have to calculate our final answer to where we predict the dart
will land when given a specific degree and height without shooting the nerf gun until our
prediction was made.

To find the muzzle velocity, the only tools we will need is a meter stick and a nerf gun.
We decided that the easiest way to find the exact velocity at which the dart will leave the nerf
gun was to use D=RT. The only problem with that is we have two unknown variables in that
equation, which can be easily resolved by using another equation. To find that other equation we
needed to gather some data. We decided that we would shoot the nerf gun horizontally from the
height of one meter, and measure the distance at which the dart landed when it hit the floor. It is
extremely important that you do this step multiple times and average the distance. In our first
trial in this experiment, we had a broken nerf gun, and when we finally got it to shoot the dart,
we didnt exactly see where it landed but guessed that distance anyways and proceeded with that
single trial result, which greatly affected our final estimate and we had to return to this step to get
an accurate result. For our second trial, we were given an electromagnetic ring launcher, and did
the exact same procedure as above. We set it up from the height of a chair which was .67 meters
and shot the ring horizontally, and measured the distance the ring hit the ground. We did this 3
times and averaged the distance it hit the floor. Then we listed the variables of the horizontal
components.

In this case we are solving for time and cant have 2 unknown variables in the equation, so the
equation that includes time and does not have vf is the mother of all motion equations which is:
Then we need to rearrange the equation to solve for time
And now we can plug that answer into D=RT. We have distance, and just solved for time, so we
need to rearrange the equation to solve for rate.

Now we have our muzzle velocity.

At this point we can be given any height and degree to shoot the electromagnetic ring launcher
at, and be able to predict its exact distance at which the ring will land. The height we were given
was .45 meters, and had to shoot it at a 35 angle. You are not allowed to shoot the nerf gun or in
our case, the electromagnetic ring launcher at this point until you solved for the distance at which
it will land at, and shouldnt have to.

First you want to list you vertical components.

Then you want to use an equation that solves for time but does not have vf in the equation.

It turns out that you need the quadratic equation to solve for this, and in this case, we plugged in
these results into the Quadrat program in our calculators, and need the positive result from that.

Next we listed out horizontal components.

And plugged in our known variables

This will give out our final result, which is the distance at which the dart, or in our case ring, will
land when you shoot it from a 35 angle and at the height of .45 meters.

Now, we can test our result by shooting the ring at our given height and angle. When we did this,
it hit exactly where we predicted it would.