PROJECTILE MOTION LAB

            There are those who can consistently throw a baseball 90 miles per hour!  Did you ever wonder how fast you could throw a ball?  This lab will provide you with an opportunity to find out!

            For this lab each member of your group will throw a ball.  By collecting certain data from each throw you will be able to calculate how fast you threw the ball.  Your task for this lab will be to determine (1) what data you need to collect and (2) what to do with that data.  If you collect the right data and if you use the data correctly you will know how fast you threw your ball.

            In order to better understand what is expected of each member of your group a careful reading of the Rubric will be very helpful.  The rubric, of course, is what will be used to evaluate the work you and your group did for this lab.

PROCEDURES

  1. From the introduction above determine the purpose of this lab.  Write up the purpose in a detailed paragraph.
  2. From these procedures you are now reading, write a numbered step-by-step procedure that will present a step-by-step process whereby someone can repeat what you have done for this lab and thus be able to calculate the speed with which they can throw a ball.

Numbers 3-8 must be done correctly before you will be given the equipment you need to do this lab.

  1. Make a prediction about how fast you think you can throw a ball. 
  2. Determine what data you will need to collect.
  3. Determine what equipment you will need to do this lab.  Beware: you will be given what you ask for and nothing else! (OK, OK, OK! Calculators, pens, pencils, paper are assumed!)
  4. Determine how these data will be used to find the thrower’s speed.
  5. Determine what equations you will use.
  6. Determine how you will record your data.
  7. Perform the tasks needed to collect the data.
  8. Do the calculations using the data.  Be sure that this is done in the proper 3-column method.
  9. Write up your summary.

SUMMARY

Each member of your group is expected to answer the questions below.  Be sure to answer each question carefully and completely.

  1. Did you correctly predict how fast you could throw a ball?  If your prediction was in miles per hour, I expect to see your calculated speed in miles per hour.  Was your prediction too large or too small?  Were you surprised by your results?
  2. What was the hardest part of this lab for you?  Explain why.
  3. What was the easiest part of this lab for you?  Explain why.
  4. It is your teacher’s most fervent hope that you learned something by doing this lab that you did not know before.  What is that something?

THE LAB REPORT

The lab report must be typed.  Anything not typed will not be seen.  Each group will submit one report.  Each report must have the following parts:

PART 1: The Purpose. 

PART 2: The Procedures.  These cannot be in too much detail!  Be sure that by reading your procedures a 4th grader could calculate the speed with which they can throw a ball.

PART 3:  The Preliminaries.  Put the information from my procedures, numbers 3-7.

PART 4: The Data Tables.  In this part you will have your, well, your data tables.

PART 5: The Calculations.  In this part you will have your . . .

PART 6: The Summary.  See what I have written under the title “SUMMARY”.

GROUP NAME:_________________________________

 

Grading Table for the Projectile Motion Lab

Rubric

Points awarded and comments
  1. (10) On Task: everyone does their job and no one is fooling around 

 

 

 
  1. (10) Group Detachment: You do not distract another group nor do you allow another group to distract you.

 

 
  1. (10) Preliminary Prediction 

 

 

 

 
  1. (10) Proper determination of the necessary data. (You get three chances to get this right at a cost of 3 points per chance)

 
  1. (10) Proper determination of the necessary equipment. (You get three chances to get this right at a cost of 3 points per chance)

 
  1. (10) Proper determination of how the data will be used. (You get three chances to get this right at a cost of 3 points per chance)

 
  1. (10) Proper determination of the necessary equations. (You get three chances to get this right at a cost of 3 points per chance)

 
  1. (10) Proper means of recording your data. (You get three chances to get this right at a cost of 3 points per chance)

 
  1. (10) Calculations

 

 

 

 
  1. (25) The Report