Sunday, September 20, 2009

Blog 2: Projectile Motion

This past weekend, my cousin and I were playing in my grandma's back yard waiting for the UH football game to start. We accidentally hit the ball over the roof and to go to the front of the house to retrieve the ball. Instead of just getting the ball and walking it back to the backyard, my cousin said he could throw the ball over the whole house. I instantly thought of projectile motion and went inside to get my camera to record the motion of the ball. Using kinematic equations, I could have figured out the approximate vertical velocity he had to throw the ball with in order for the ball to get over the roof and land in the backyard. I would've had to known the exact height of the house, how far the ball traveled in the x-direction, and the final velocities of the ball. The roof is gabled so the ball would have to be at it's peak at the highest point of the roof, but my grandma's roof has a metal roof attachment, so the peak of the ball doesn't match the peak of the roof. The first picture is of my cousin throwing the ball from the ball from the front of the house, the second is of the ball approximately at it's peak, and the third is of the ball almost landing in the backyard.






1 comment:

  1. mmmm. I see what you are saying. I like how you see things and relate them to physics in your everyday life. I think i could've made the throw easily.

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