Projectile Motion

Projectile motion is a particular kind of 2 dimensional motion. We make the following assumptions:

• The only force present is the force due to gravity.
• The magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity is |$\vec{a}$| = g = 9.8 m/s ² We choose a coordinate system in which the positive y-axis points up perpendicular to the earth's surface. This definition gives, a_y = - g and a_x = 0 .
• The rotation of the earth does not affect the motion.

Initial Conditions:

We choose the coordinate system so that the particle leaves the origin ( x₀ = 0, y₀ = 0 ) at time t₀ = 0 with an initial velocity of $\vec{v}_{0}^{}$ .