NSCI-6100 PHYSICS FOR

ENGINEERS 1
MOTION
(Freely Falling Bodies
And Projectile Motion)
Presented By:
Engr. Emmanuel A. Camba
Instructor-AMACC Batangas

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 Freely Falling
Bodies

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Free fall as the term says, is a body falling
freely because of the gravitational pull of
our earth.
Imagine a body is falling freely for time t
seconds, with velocity v, from a height h,
due to gravity g.
Free fall is autonomous of the body’s mass.
It only depends on height and the time
period for which body is flung.

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A free falling object is an object that is
falling under the sole influence of gravity.
Any object that is being acted upon only by
the force of gravity is said to be in a state of
free fall. There are two important motion
characteristics that are true of free-falling
objects:

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a.Free-falling objects do not encounter air
resistance.
b.All free-falling objects (on Earth)
accelerate downwards at a rate of 9.8
m/s/s (often approximated as 10 m/s/s for
back-of-the-envelope calculations)

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An object at rest, dropped from a distance above
the Earth, will accelerate at a constant rate due to
gravity. Learn with this Formula Solver how to
calculate this downward acceleration using your
own distance, time and final velocity values.
An object at rest dropped from distance(d) above
Earth will accelerate downward at a constant
9.8m/s² due to gravity(g) and fall for (t) seconds
with a final velocity(v). This behavior is described
by this two formula:
d = gt²/2 v=gt

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•Sample
  Problem 1.
How long does it take a ball to fall from a roof to
the ground 7.0 m below?
With what speed does it strike the ground?
Answer:
In kinematic problems, start off with t. Use this
format to list the information given and identify
the quantity being solved for. Then identify the
relationship between the given and the
unknown quantities, substitute the values into
the relationship and solve for the unknown.

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1

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• Now
  we can see we need a relationship
between d, a, and t
d = t + (0.5)
(7.0 m) = (0) t + (0.5) (9.8)
t = 1.20s
• We need a relationship between d, a, and
= + 2ad
= + 2 (9.8) (7.0)
= 11.7 m/s

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Problem 2.
How long does it take a ball to reach the ground
7.0 m below, if it is thrown straight up with an initial
speed of 2.00 m/s?
ANSWER:
2. frame of reference : down = +

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•*Do
  not use “[up]” and “-“at the same time
unless you are trying to say (“the opposite of
[up]”)
• Now we can see we need a relationship
between d, a, and t
d = t + (0.5)
(7.0 m) = (-2.00) t + (0.5) (9.8)
t = {1.42, -1.01}
Since t < 0 has no meaning,
t = 1.42s

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Bodies Thrown Upward
and Downward
(Projectile Motion)

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A projectile is a shot at an initial velocity v0 at an angle
above the horizon. How far will it go? How high will it
rise? What is the shape of its trajectory?
Denote the projectile's range R and the height of its
trajectory h. Let us choose the origin of the coordinate
system at the launch point, the x axis in the horizontal
direction and the y axis in the vertical direction pointing
up.

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•Then
  the components of , the initial velocity
vector are
= cos□ = sin□ (1)
The entire motion is described by the
kinematics vector equation that prescribe
the variation with time of position vector r
and velocity vector v for a given acceleration
vector a:
dr/dt = ydv/dt = a

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•Each
  vector equation is actually a set of two
independent equations (this is a two-dimensional
motion for x and y components of the
corresponding vectors). That is, these equations
are simply shorthand notation for
dx/dt = /dt =
dy/dt = /dt =
So, in reality we are with two sets of independent
equations for the x and y directions and can
envision the problem as a superposition of two
completely independent motions that together are
equivalent to the projectile motion.

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•Let  us consider two other objects. The first one moves
in the horizontal direction with the constant velocity. All
the factors that govern the motion of this object and of
the horizontal component of our projectile motion are
identical. These two motions cannot be distinguished
for each other. Therefore, if we solve for the motion of
this imaginary object, we will have solved the x
component of the projectile motion. The second object
we consider is thrown straight up with velocity. All the
factors that govern the motion of this object and of the
vertical component of our projectile motion are
identical. Again, if we solve for the motion of this
imaginary object, we will have solved the y component
of the projectile motion.

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These two imaginary objects will become our projectile
when we link their motions with a common time
because in the projectile case, both the horizontal and
vertical motions start at the same place at the same
time. Our projectile is equivalent to an object moving
up and down, and also sliding in the horizontal
direction while executing this vertical motion.
We can easily find the total duration of the vertical
component of the motion; you may wish to revisit the
relevant note on up-and-down motion to refresh your
memory and how that's done. Once we know how long
the projectile stayed in the air, finding the range from
the horizontal motion is simple. Let's put these ideas
together.
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•  
The Horizontal Component
Neglecting air resistance, the velocity x
component does not change throughout the
entire motion.
Therefore =
and (2)
That’s all for horizontal motion.

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•The
  Vertical Component
The y component of the projectile’s motion is
subject to the gravitational acceleration which
points downward. So as a function of time is
(3)
For our choice of axes. You may wish to revisit
the note on the choice of signs for velocity and
acceleration. The y motion can be envisioned
as an object thrown straight up with velocity .

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•Such
  an object will rise until its velocity is
zero, so from the last equation the time to
reach the maximum height is
(4)
The object will then fall to the ground and
the downward trip is the mirror image of the
trip up; you may wish to revisit the relevant
note. Therefore, the total time the object
stays in the air is
(5)

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•Putting
  It Together
That’s it. We have derived the total duration of
the projectile’ motion. To find the range R all that
is left is to plug into equation (2) which gives us
the distance covered at any time t. The result is
R =
=
= sin cos (6)
where in the last step we inserted and from
equation (1).

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•Why
  the funny dependence on angle? From the
first step in equation (6), the range is the product
of the horizontal velocity component and the total
duration of the motion. For a given launch speed ,
large are obtained at a small launch angle. But
then the duration of the flight is short because is
small. Conversely, a steep launch angle will
maximize the duration of the motion by a large ,
but then is small and the object simply goes up
and down without getting very far. The composition
between these two opposing effects is the reason
for the dependent shown in our result.

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•This
  result can be simplified when we recall the
identity from trigonometry sin2sincos. With this
identity the range become simply
R = sin2 (7)
The maximum value of the sine function is 1,
obtained when its argument is. Therefore, for a
given , the maximum range is , obtained for a
launch angle. The function sin □□ is symmetric
about its peak □°, therefore the function sin2 is
symmetric about □□°. For example, a projectile
launched at 30° will have the same range as one
launched at 60°.

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•  
The Trajectory Height
An object thrown upward with velocity will
rise to a height ; you may wish to revisit the
note on up-and-down motion to verify this
result. So this is the height of the projectile’s
trajectory

h = = sin2

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Sample Problem 1.
A bullet has a speed of
350m/s as it leaves a rifle. If
it is fired horizontally from a
cliff 6.4m above a lake, how
far does the bullet travel
before striking the water?
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•Solution:
We have a 2-dimentional
problem with constant
acceleration (acceleration due
to gravity). This is a projectile
motion problem. The figure is
as shown and the coordinate
system is drawn. The origin is
placed at the bullet’s location at
time t = 0. Hence the initial
conditions for the problem are
x (t = 0) = = 0; y (t = 0) = = 0; (t
= 0) = = 350 m/s; (t = 0)
•Since
  the only force acting is gravity
(downward = + y direction), we have = 0; =
g = + 9.8 . The general solution for the
constant acceleration problem in two
dimensions are:
x (t) = ½ + +
y (t) = ½ + +
(t) = ½ t +
(t) = ½ t +

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Inserting
•   the values of acceleration and the initial conditions
gives us the specific equations (applicable to this one
particular problem).
x (t) = (350t)
= 350 m/s
y (t) = (½) (9.8)
= 9.8 t
Let t’ be the time when the bullet hits the lake. We then
know that:
y (t’) = + 6.4 m. Thus: y (t’) = 6.4 = + 4.9 —> t’
= 1.143 sec
The horizontal (x) position of the bullet at this time is then:
x (t’) = (350) (1.143) = 400 m

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Problem 2.
A player kicks a football at an angle
of 37° with the horizontal and an
initial speed of 48ft/s. A second
player standing at a distance of
100ft from the first in the direction of
the kick start running to meet the
ball at the instant it is kicked. How
fast must he run in order to catch the
ball before it hits the ground?
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Solution:
•  
We have a projectile motion problem
(as far as the football is concerned).
Hence, we have drawn a figure,
chosen a CS, and write down the
initial condition (initial position and
velocity) of the football at (t = 0).
= 0;
= cos37;
= 0;
= sin37;
The acceleration is = 0; = -32
The general equations of motion for
constant acceleration in 2-dimensions
are:
The general equations of motion for constant acceleration
in 2-dimensions are:

We insert the known values for acceleration & initial

conditions and obtain the specific equations for the football:

We can now answer any question regarding the motion of

the football. In particular, we are interested in when it hits
the ground (call this t’). We have:

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Hence the ball will land at
from the origin.

We can now consider the 2nd player. His initial position (t =

0) is 100ft from the origin, and he must reach a point 69ft
from the origin in 1.8sec if he is to catch the ball. Thus from
the definition of average velocity.

The negative sign indicates that he must run toward the

origin (negative x direction).

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END...

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