Projectile Motion

Vectors:

In this part of the lesson, students will be able to know the meaning of vectors, and use them when adding and subtracting..  They will be able to learn how to use magnitude and direction with vectors.  Students will be able to graph vectors and understand how to compute scalar multiplication.  Students will be able to present their findings in class, which will allow them to see a connection with all material covered throughout this lesson.  Students will be able to utilize knowledge from this part of the unit lesson, in order to proceed to the next lesson covered throughout this unit.

Parametric and Kinematics Equations:

Projectile Motion:

In this part of the lesson, students will get out of the classroom and into a scientific mind set. These students will go outside and record there experiences with projectile motion with different sports equipment such as, baseballs, footballs, soccer balls, basketballs, etc. They will take their footage and import it into a computer program (LoggerPro) and analyze the different components of the ball: initial velocity, acceleration, and the time it took in the air. The students will then be able to present their findings to the class and use what they learned in a final project where they will be a catapult and hit a target x distance away.

TEKS used:

§111.35 Pre-Calculus

(P.3)  The student uses functions and their properties, tools and technology, to model and solve meaningful problems.

The student is expected to:

(A)  investigate properties of trigonometric and polynomial functions;

(B)  use functions such as logarithmic, exponential, trigonometric, polynomial, etc. to model real-life data;

(C)  use regression to determine the appropriateness of a linear function to model real-life data (including using technology to determine the correlation coefficient);

(D)  use properties of functions to analyze and solve problems and make predictions; and

(E)  solve problems from physical situations using trigonometry, including the use of Law of Sines, Law of Cosines, and area formulas and incorporate radian measure where needed.

(P.6)  The student uses vectors to model physical situations.

(A)  use the concept of vectors to model situations defined by magnitude and direction; and

            (B)  analyze and solve vector problems generated by real-life situations.

Background:

Most of the websites below can help you understand the concepts of projectile motion and are resources to our own lessons:

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/science/core/plans/int/grape.html

http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/1DKin/U1L6d.html 

http://mathforum.org/~klotz/Vectors/vectors.html 

http://id.mind.net/~zona/mstm/physics/mechanics/curvedMotion/projectileMotion/generalSolution/generalSolution.html

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Vectors/ProjectilesMotion.html