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Projectile Motion HTML Guide - en

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Lu Gyi Lay
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6 views

Projectile Motion HTML Guide - en

Uploaded by

Lu Gyi Lay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tips for Teachers Projectile Motion

Intro Screen
Investigate the the factors that affect a projectile’s trajectory, such as angle, height, initial speed, and air
resistance.

SEE the apex of EXPERIMENT


the trajectory with various
projectiles

ADJUST cannon
ADJUST cannon INVESTIGATE
angle
angle (5°
(5* steps)
steps) the effects of air
and height resistance

MEASURE the
FIRE projectile
time, range, and
height of the
projectile along
its path

Vectors Screen
View the drag and gravitational forces in a free-body diagram, and explore how the velocity and
acceleration are affected by air resistance.

ZOOM in or out EXPLORE the


effects of
diameter, mass,
and air

OBSERVE a VIEW the


free-body vectors as totals
diagram in real or components

SET the initial


speed

Rouinfar, August 2023


Drag Screen
Determine the factors that affect the drag force, and observe the relationship between the drag force and
the velocity.

EXPLORE the
relationship
COMPARE up to between drag
5 paths coef cient and
shape

ERASE the paths ADJUST the


altitude

Lab Screen
Explore the effects of adjusting the projectile’s parameters, and investigate the in uence of gravity.

REVIEW initial
conditions
DRAG the target
to the projectile’s
landing spot ADJUST the
mass & diameter

INVESTIGATE
ADJUST cannon gravity
angle in 1° steps

PAUSE and step


through the
motion

Model Simpli cations


• The cannon has crosshairs to mark the initial location of the projectile.
• Changes in air resistance, altitude, and gravity apply immediately and will affect all projectiles mid- ight.
• Vectors are drawn from the center of the image, which may deviate slightly from the center of mass.
For better visibility, the vectors do not scale with the zoom level.
• The drag force is modeled used quadratic drag (Fdrag ∝ v2) which is valid in the high Reynold’s number
limit appropriate for macroscopic objects like baseballs. Linear drag (Stoke's Law) is only valid in the
very low Reynold's number limit (like micron-sized droplets in air).
• The drag coef cient depends on the Reynolds number, which we have assumed to be a constant.

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• The drag coef cient also depends on the geometry of the object, so benchmark projectiles (e.g.
baseball, car) do not have an adjustable drag coef cient.
• The cross-sectional area of the projectiles is approximated to be a circle, and its area is determined by
the diameter.
• Items that stay tangent to the trajectory while in motion (e.g. football, tank shell) are assumed to have
the appropriate aerodynamics or weight distribution that leads to this behavior.

Complex Controls
• Up to three projectiles can be queued up if red while paused.
• The tracer tool can measure the time, range, and height of the projectile at any dot
along the path. The black dots are drawn in 0.1s intervals, and the green dot
represents the apex.
• The “Custom” projectile on Lab screen allows users to enter precise values for
the mass, diameter, gravity, altitude, and drag coef cient. The acceptable range
for these values will be displayed at the top of the keypad.

Insights into Student Use


• Students usually nd all the available options in the sim without prompting, like adjusting cannon angle,
moving the target, changing the projectile parameters, and turning on vectors.
• The cannon sits on a pedestal with an adjustable height. To cue this behavior, the cannon on
the Intro screen starts at 10 m, and has arrows on the height label that will disappear once the
cannon’s height is adjusted.

Suggestions for Use


Sample Challenge Prompts
• Choose a variable, and design an experiment to determine how it affects the projectile’s path.
• Predict how changing the initial conditions will affect the path of the projectile, and explain your
reasoning.
• Determine which factors affect the range of the projectile when air resistance is turned on, but have no
effect when air resistance is turned off.
• Describe how the behavior of the velocity and acceleration vectors over time, and how they are
affected by air resistance.
• Explain why the black dots on the projectile’s path are closer together near the top, but further apart
when close to the ground.
• Create a situation in which the projectile reaches terminal velocity.

Customization Options
Query parameters allow for customization of the simulation, and can be added by appending a '?' to the
sim URL, and separating each query parameter with a ‘&’. The general URL pattern is:
…html?queryParameter1&queryParameter2&queryParameter3

For example, in Projectile Motion, if you only want to include the 1st and 2nd screens (screens=1,2),
with the 2nd screen open by default (initialScreen=2) use:
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/projectile-motion/latest/projectile-motion_all.html?screens=1,2&initialScreen=2

To run this in Spanish (locale=es), the URL would become:


https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/projectile-motion/latest/projectile-motion_all.html?locale=es&screens=1,2&initialScreen=2

Rouinfar, August 2023


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Query Parameter and Description Example Links
screens - speci es which screens are included in screens=1
the sim and their order. Each screen should be
separated by a comma. For more information, visit screens=2,1
the Help Center.
initialScreen - opens the sim directly to the initialScreen=1
speci ed screen, bypassing the home screen. initialScreen=3

locale - specify the language of the simulation locale=es (Spanish)


using ISO 639-1 codes. Available locales can be locale=fr (French)
found on the simulation page on the Translations
tab. Note: this only works if the simulation URL
ends in “_all.html”.
allowLinks - when false, disables links that allowLinks=false
take students to an external URL. Default is true.

See all published activities for Projectile Motion here.


For more tips on using PhET sims with your students, see Tips for Using PhET.

Rouinfar, August 2023


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