Projectile Motion Lab
Posted by: Scott on: November 15, 2008
This is a favorite of mine. After you’ve spend nearly two weeks trying to get students to understand the basics of projectile motion, it’s time to go hands-on.
Students get a Nerf gun, a meter stick, a level, and a long metric tape measure. They launch several darts horizontally from 1 meter in height and mark where the darts first hit the ground. They measure this distance and average them together. Then using this distance and the time it takes for an object to fall 1 meter, they can calculate the muzzle velocity of their Nerf gun. (My Nerf gun in the picture has a muzzle velocity of around 12 m/s.)
Part two, they are to use what we did in class to calculate how far the dart will go if they are launched from the ground at 10º, 15º, and 20º. (Any higher angle and they hit the ceiling.)
Part three, they go back to the range and using a large cardboard protractor that I made, they launch the darts from the ground at those three angle and see how they did. The lab is attached below along with another one I do at the same time. Enjoy.
3 Responses to "Projectile Motion Lab"
October 18, 2010 at 8:45 am
Thanks so much for this blog!
I just found it the other day when searching for a Nerf gun lab. I also had this idea, but wanted to see if anyone else had done it, and what other things I would need to consider to make the lab successful. I am attempting the lab on Wed. and Thurs. with my classes. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m a first year teacher, and this is a great resource for ideas and teaching tools that I don’t have to create all on my own. Keep up the awesome posting!
October 18, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I’m looking forward to hearing how it works out for you. If you come up with any variations, I do want to hear about those a well.
What do you think? Your opinion matters, leave a reply.
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November 17, 2008 at 9:25 am
I bring in a ramp, to consistently launch a ball bearing horizontally from my desk. then I give each group(2-3) a ring stand with ring attached (borrow from chem lab) all set at different heights.
Task: place your ring stand so the ball will fall through the ring.
We need to measure as a group, the height of the desk, and the horizontal distance the ball lands. I wait until someone decides we should measure those.