Physics 12
PROJECTILE MOTION PROBLEM SET
1.) A ball thrown horizontally at l8m/s from the roof of a building, lands 24m from
the base of the building. How high is the building?
2.) An airplane traveling at 150km/h wants to drop supplies to flood victims
isolated on a patch of land 200m below. How many seconds before reaching
the target should the supplies be dropped?
3.) A football is kicked with a velocity of 2l m/s at 37o the horizontal. How much
later does it hit the ground? How far horizontally does it travel?
4.) An athlete throws a shotput (mass 7.3kg) with an initial velocity of l4m/s at 40o
to the horizontal. The shot leaves the hand at a height of 2.2m above the
ground. Calculate the distance (range) of the shot.
5.) A long jumper leaves the ground at an angle of 30o and travels 8.9m. What was
their take-off speed?
PROJECTILE MOTION PROBLEM SET (use g = 10 m/s2)
1. The fastest recorded pitch was clocked at 160 km/h. If a pitch were thrown horizontally with
this velocity, how far would the ball fall vertically by the time it reached home plate, 20 m
away? [ - 0.99m]
2. A place kicker must kick a football from a point 36.0 m from the goal, and the ball must clear
the cross bar, which is 3.05 m high. When kicked, the ball leaves the ground with a speed
of 20.0 m/s at an angle of 53 to the horizontal. (a) By how much does the ball clear or fall
short of the crossbar? (b) Does the ball approach the crossbar while still rising or while
falling? [a = 0.85 m, b = falling at -13 m/s]
3. A Student stands at the edge of a cliff and throws a stone horizontally over the edge with a
speed of 18.0 m/s The cliff is 50 m above a flat horizontal beach. (a) How long after being
released does the stone strike the beach below the cliff? (b) With what speed and angle of
impact does it land? [a = 3.16 s, b = 36.0 m/s 60° below horizontal]
4. Tom the cat is chasing Jerry the mouse across a table surface 1.5 m off the floor. Jerry steps
out of the way at the last second, and Tom slides off the edge of the table at a speed of 5.0
m/s. Where will Tom strike the floor, and what velocity components will he have just
before he hits?
[d = 2.75 m, vx = 5.0 m/s, vy = -5.4 m/s]
5. A person can run at 10 m/s. She jumps from one cliff at an angle of 40 towards another cliff
10.1 m away at the same level. Does she make it? [no, she falls short by 0.07m]
6. A cannon fires a shell at 300 m/s. At what angle must it aim to hit a target 5.0 km away?
[16.5°, recall that 2sincos = sin 2]
7. A ball is thrown towards a building 60 m away with a speed of 25 m/s at an angle of 50 from
the horizontal. (a) Where will it strike the building? (b) Where will it strike the ground
(assume an elastic collision) [ 1.8 m high, -2.7 m from base of wall]