Textbooks almost always have a stroboscopic photograph of a ball falling alongside of one with an initial horizontal speed. These photos are great for showing how the two objects experience the same vertical acceleration; however, the photos don't usually illustrate what happens if a projectile is launched at some angle. There are a number of ways to illustrate the effects of the launch angle: shooting a ball or stream of water through hoops, for example.1 Those demonstrations, though, do not allow for side-by-side comparison of the effects of various launch angles. Thus, a few years ago I constructed this three-dimensional projectile model to do just that. The model is composed of two three-dimensional “stroboscopic sculptures” representing the trajectory of two projectiles.

Topics
Measuring instruments, Launch angle, Educational aids, News and events
1.
“M-90. Water-Stream Parabola,” in Demonstration Experiments if Physics, edited by Richard M. Sutton (McGraw Hill, New York, 1938), p.43.
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© 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2003
American Association of Physics Teachers
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