At the end of the spring term, a high school physics class celebrates by shooting a bundle of exam papers into the town landfill with a homemade catapult. They aim for a point that is 31.1 m away and at the same height from which the catapult releases the bundle. The initial horizontal velocity component is 5.87 m/s.
a) What is the initial velocity component in the vertical direction?
To find the initial velocity component in the vertical direction, we need to understand the motion of the projectile. We can break the initial velocity into its horizontal and vertical components.
Given:
Initial horizontal velocity component (Vx) = 5.87 m/s
We can assume that there is no initial vertical velocity component (Vy = 0) because the papers are being shot horizontally.
Therefore, the initial velocity component in the vertical direction is 0 m/s.