OBJECTIVE :- To study the application of

mathematics in projectile motion.

INTRODUCTION :-
What is a Projectile?
Projectile is any object thrown into the space upon which
the only acting force is the gravity. In other words, the
primary force acting on a projectile is gravity. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that the other forces do not act on it, just
that their effect is minimal compared to gravity. The path
followed by a projectile is known as trajectory.

What is Projectile Motion?

When a particle is thrown obliquely near the earth’s surface,
it moves along a curved path under constant acceleration
that is directed towards the centre of the earth (we assume
that the particle remains close to the surface of the earth).
The path of such a particle is called a projectile and the
motion is called projectile motion. Air resistance to the
motion of the body is to be assumed absent in projectile
motion.In a Projectile Motion, there are two simultaneous
independent rectilinear motions:
1. Along x-axis: uniform velocity, responsible for
the horizontal (forward) motion of the particle.
2. Along y-axis: uniform acceleration, responsible for
the vertical (downwards) motion of the particle.
Accelerations in the horizontal projectile motion and vertical
projectile motion of a particle: When a particle is projected
in the air with some speed, the only force acting on it during
its time in the air is the acceleration due to gravity (g). This
acceleration acts vertically downward. There is no
acceleration in the horizontal direction which means that the
velocity of the particle in the horizontal direction remains
constant.
DESCRIPTION:-
Let us consider a ball projected at an angle θ with
respect to horizontal x-axis with the initial velocity u as
shown below:

The point O is called the point of projection; θ is

the angle of projection and OB = Horizontal Range or
Simply Range. The total time taken by the particle from
reaching O to B is called the time of flight.
For finding different parameters related to projectile
motion, we can make use of different equations of
motions:
Total Time of Flight: Resultant displacement (s) = 0 in
Vertical direction. Therefore, by using the Equation of
motion:
gt2 = 2(uyt – sy) [Here, uy = u sin θ and sy = 0]
i.e. gt2 = 2t × u sin θ
Therefore, the total time of flight (t):

Horizontal Range: Horizontal Range (OA) = Horizontal

component of velocity (ux) × Total Flight Time (t)
R = u cos θ × 2u×sinθg
Therefore in a projectile motion the Horizontal
Range is given by (R):

Maximum Height: It is the highest point of the trajectory

(point A). When the ball is at point A, the vertical
component of the velocity will be zero. i.e. 0 = (u sin θ)2
– 2g Hmax [s = Hmax , v = 0 and u = u sin θ]
Therefore in a projectile motion the Maximum Height
is given by (Hmax):

The equation of Trajectory: Let, the position of the ball

at any instant (t) be M (x, y). Now, from Equations of
Motion:
x = t × u cos θ . . . . . . (1)
y = u sin θ × t – 12×t2g. . . . . . (2)
On substituting Equation (1) in Equation (2):

This is the Equation of Trajectory in a projectile

motion, and it proves that the projectile motion is
always parabolic in nature.
Now lets us see about Vector Projection and
Components of Vectors which is used in projectile
motion.
One important use of dot products is in projections. The
scalar projection of b onto a is the length of the segment
AB shown in the figure below. The vector projection
of b onto a is the vector with this length that begins at
the point A points in the same direction (or opposite
direction if the scalar projection is negative) as a.
The vector projection is of two types: Scalar projection
that tells about the magnitude of vector projection and
the other is the Vector projection which says about itself
and represents the unit vector.

If the vector vec a is projected on vec b then Vector

Projection formula is given below:

The Scalar projection formula defines the length of given

vector projection and is given below:

The process of breaking a vector into its components is

called resolving into components.
In practise it is most useful to resolve a vector into
components which are at right angles to one another,
usually horizontal and vertical. Think about all the
problems we've solved so far. If we have vectors parallel
to the xx- and yy-axes problems are straightforward to
solve.
Any vector can be resolved into a horizontal and a
vertical component. If 𝑅⃗ is a vector, then the horizontal
component of 𝑅⃗ and the vertical component is 𝑅⃗ .

When resolving into components that are parallel to

the x and y axes we are always dealing with a right-
angled triangle. This means that we can use
trigonometric identities to determine the magnitudes of
the components (we know the directions because they
are aligned with the axes).
From the triangle in the diagram above we know that
CONCLUSION:-
Mathematics over the centuries more and more turned
out to be the suitable language for physicists to describe
the world and their subject. If you want to make
measurable predictions to test your theories then you
need a language that can accommodate much more
precise and complex statements than any natural
language is capable of. So, Physics uses Mathematics to
model reality. Projectile motion, name itself suggests us
it is based on projections. So the projectile motion is
completely based on the mathematical concepts of
Vector Projection and Components Of Vectors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projectile_motion
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectors.html
Class XII Ncert Math Part-II