CANNON
This applet simulates projectile motion, e.g. a cannon or a stone thrown in the air. Click "Fire" to see ...
To change values, you can click on the sliders or type values and then click "Fire".

Investigate how the launch speed, angle and mass of a projectile influence its trajectory (path) ... To do that, we should systematically vary the variables

//default is 20 This is a Java 1.1 applet demonstrating projectile motion.

1. Keep the angle and mass as it is and vary the velocity from 50 to 60 to ... 90. Are the height and the horisontal distance of the projectile increasing functions of the velocity? How are these trajectories the same? What is the form of the formula of all these trajectories?
2. Refresh the page to clear the trails. Keep the velocity at 50, type 20 for the angle and fire. Now vary the angle from 20 to 30 to 40 ... Are the height and the horisontal distance increasing functions of the angle? Show that an angle of 40 and an angle of 50 hit the same target, test other values and generalise. For a given velocity, what angle gives the maximum horisontal distance?
3. Find the formula of the trajectory of the projectile with a maximum distance of 150 m.
4. Spend some time on this problem: Enter a velocity of 50 and an angle of 41 and fire. Use the information in the top-right corner to deduce the formula for the height y of the projectile in terms of the horisontal distance x. How high is the projectile when x = 200 m?
   Now enter a velocity of 50 and an angle of 49 and fire. Use the given information to deduce the formula for this path. How high is the projectile when x = 200 m?
5. Now keep the velocity and angle fixed and investigate the influence of the mass of the projectile.
6. Now tick "air resistance" and fire away ... Compare the path with and without air resistance. Is the trajectory a parabola? Can you explain it?