Activity 3

Curve me on an incline
Members: ___________________ Score: ________
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Objective:
Capture a full trajectory of projectile motion on an inclined surface.
Investigate the relationships between the projection angle, the height, the range, and
the time of travel of a projectile.

Materials Needed:
 Projectiles : marble or jackstone, soda/water plastic bottle cap, powder (e.g. face powder
or flour on low container)
 Projectile launcher : retractable pen preferably HBW Matrix pen, sticky tape, pair of
scissors, and 2 popsicle sticks
 Inclined surface : 1/8 illustration board (10” x 15”) on cookie baking sheet or cookie
baking sheet (13” x 17”) alone, 4 books (~1” thick) for 200 incline and weight support
 Table top
 Protractor
 Pencil
 Tissue paper
 Ruler or tape measure

Procedure:

Tracing the Trajectory

1. Tape the popsicle sticks together. Using tape, attach these firmly to one side of the
retractable pen to serve as the launching pad. Push the top end and position the object
to launch (marble or bottle cap). Refer to Figure below.

2. Using a protractor and pencil, mark the bottom left of the illustration board or cookie
baking sheet with selected angles at 15 or 20 degree in tervals. Tape the illustration
board at the top right of the board.

On the board select and draw fix origins at points A and B. The left and bottom ends of
the board may serve as the y-axis and x-axis respectively.
To complete the set-up, elevate one end of the board using books with an angle of inclination of
about 200. Use another book to hold the inclined surface in place as shown in Fig. 5b.

Push the top end of the modified retractable pen and firmly hold it horizontally at point A. Then
carefully place the powder coated marble on its launching pad. Launch the marble by pushing
the clip of the modified retractable pen.

5. Trace the powder-marked trajectory with a pencil. Dust off the powder. Label this path as
‘horizontally-launched’ for later analysis.

6. At point B, repeat steps 3 and 4 but this time carefully launching the marble at selected
angles (e.g. 150, 300, 450, 600, and 750) and marking the pencil-traced trajectories as
‘launched at __ angle.’
ANSWER:

Q1. Describe the trajectory for horizontally fired projectiles along an incline. Sketch the
trajectory.____________________________________________________________________
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Sketch:

Q2. Describe the shape of the trajectory for projectiles fired at angles along an incline. Sketch
the trajectory.
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Sketch:

Q3. Compare the locations of the trajectory peaks in terms of maximum height, hmax reached.
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Q4. Compare the horizontal distances, x (range) reached when they return to the elevation
from which they were projected.
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Q5. Among the trajectories of projectiles fired at different angles, for the same launching
velocity, which covered the greatest range (horizontal distance in the x-axis)?
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Q6. Among the trajectories of projectiles fired at different angles, for the same launching
speed, which recorded the highest peak?

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Q7. Which pairs of trajectories have ranges that are almost equal?

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