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 || = 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, ay = - g and ax = 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 .