Projectile motion

The x-axis is horizontal, positive to the right.
The y-axis is vertical, positive up.

Note that the drawing area is re-scaled whenever the initial speed is changed, but not when the launch angle is changed. For a fixed initial speed, therefore, you can easily see how the path depends on the launch angle.

Here are a few things to try:

• What launch angle maximizes the range?
• What launch angle maximizes the height reached?
• How does the time spent in the air depend on the launch angle?
• Compare what happens at one angle, and then at 90 degrees minus that angle (30 and 60, for instance). Is anything the same?

Created by Andrew Duffy, Boston University Physics Department.

Last update September 1, 1998