Best way to approach Projectile Motion Problems

[TheMightyTexan]

Does anyone have a nice, organized, and quick way of dissecting projectile motion problems?

It seems that i get tripped up trying to find out what to do and which way to turn. Overall, it seems that you just need to find out what you have and what you need, then dissect the motion into the various x and y components. Simple enough, I just seem take to long in doing this. Anyone have any tips?

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[Cawolf]

Hm. . . there are so many ways the problems can be presented.

If you can post an example problem, I am sure myself and others would be happy to say how we would approach it.

 

[TheMightyTexan]

@Cawolf Agreed. It's alright, i can solve them eventually... perhaps i just need more time with them then?

 

[Cawolf]

Hard for me to say! TBR has some nice shortcuts if that's what you are in to.

 

[Gandyy]

^ a lot of TBR shortcuts are great, but some arent explained well enough. Like t= v0/g for time to get to apex of a projectile , but do that and try to find height h with time, and there are a few (literally like 1 or 2)
that dont work with that method and I've been trying to figure out why.

 

[TheMightyTexan]

I think the only ones i remember for shortcuts in projectiles are max height and range. I personally like solving the traditional ways, just find that they take a bit longer than i would like figuring them out.

 

[justadream]

There's too many possible projectile motion scenarios to show just one way.

Just know the key projectile motion equations. On the AAMC questions I've seen, the questions about this are relatively simple.

 

[TheMightyTexan]

t = Vo/g should always work since that is essentially just v = d/t.

It looks like some handy derivatives could be:

time t(top) = vo/g

range r = vo^2 Sin2Theta/g

height h = vo^2/2g

Velocity voSinTheta = sqrt(2gh)

Looks kinda messy on here, i think ill just derive them on the real deal, maybe work on my speed by doing more problems if i have time

 

[TheMightyTexan]

the thumbs up is signifying the y component ( y )