Projectile motion

Have you ever thrown a ball or seen someone throw something like a frisbee or a rock? When you throw something, it goes up in the air and comes back down. That's called motion!

Now imagine throwing something really hard and really far. It would go much higher in the air and much farther before coming back down, right? This is called projectile motion.

When you throw something, it has a speed and direction, which we call velocity. This velocity makes the object travel in a straight line. But things like gravity can also affect the object's path. If you throw something high enough and gravity pulls it down, the object will curve towards the ground.

This curved path is called a parabola, which looks like a U-shaped curve. Picture a waterfall going over a cliff and making a big splash at the bottom - that's what a parabola looks like!

A cool thing about projectile motion is that the object in motion is always subject to two forces: the force of gravity pulling it down, and the force of the initial throw pushing it forward. These forces work together to create the object's motion.

Engineering and science use projectile motion to help us understand things like how to aim and throw a baseball or how a rocket launches into space. So next time you throw a ball, think about how it moves through the air and all the cool science happening behind the scenes!