All Questions
Tagged with newtonian-gravity projectile
200
questions
69
votes
7
answers
12k
views
Why do archery arrows tilt downwards in their descent?
In the movies, arrows shot into the air rotate so that during the descent, the arrow head hits ground first. What is the source of this angular momentum? It would seem that the bow string exerts a ...
- 1,548
32
votes
3
answers
15k
views
What are the precise statements by Shouryya Ray of particle dynamics problems posed by Newton which this news article claims have been solved?
This recent news article (here is the original, in German) says that
Shouryya Ray, who moved to Germany from India with his family at the age of 12, has baffled scientists and mathematicians by ...
- 480
31
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Free fall ellipse or parabola?
Herbert Spencer somewhere says that the parabola of a ballistic object is actually a portion of an ellipse that is indistinguishable from a parabola--is that true? It would seem plausible since ...
- 437
30
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Error concerning projectile motion in respected textbook?
In the textbook Fundamentals of Physics by R. Shankar of Yale Open Courses, appears the following assertion pertaining to a car driving off a cliff, which seems correct:
This is exactly how long it ...
- 473
24
votes
7
answers
4k
views
If I toss a coin, vertically, on the surface of Mars, will it land back in my hand?
When I toss a coin in Mars, is the planets atmosphere rare enough that I'd rotate with the planet (at its angular velocity), but not the coin?
- 411
23
votes
5
answers
15k
views
Is this scene from the A Team explainable by Physics?
This scene (youtube link) from the movie The A-team, the four members are in the tank and its falling from the air, they fire the canon and it slows the tank from falling for a moment before falling ...
- 349
19
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What happens when the drag force exceeds the weight of an object falling into earth?
Let's say a meteor is coming towards earth. It's not accelerating, but it does have an initial velocity. This meteor is shaped so it has an insane amount of drag, enough to even exceed its weight (not ...
- 301
18
votes
7
answers
7k
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Why does the Earth follow an elliptical trajectory rather than a parabolic one?
I was taught that when the acceleration experienced by a body is constant, that body follows a parabolic curve. This seems logical because constant acceleration means velocity that is linear and ...
- 301
18
votes
5
answers
9k
views
Elliptical Trajectory, or Parabolic?
Discuss whether this statement is correct: “In the absence
of air resistance, the trajectory of a projectile thrown near the
earth’s surface is an ellipse, not a parabola.”
Is the above statement ...
- 1,921
16
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Is projectile motion an approximation? [duplicate]
Doesn't the acceleration vector points towards the center of the Earth and not just downwards along an axis vector. I know that the acceleration vector's essentially acting downwards for small ...
- 191
16
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Minimal velocity to throw an object to the Sun
What is the minimal velocity to throw an object (material point) to the Sun from Earth, with no specific restrictions?
- 189
14
votes
7
answers
4k
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What does an undefined formula in physics mean?
I am trying to figure out how undefined formulas in mathematics relates to physics. Take the following formula for terminal velocity.
$$V_\text{terminal} = \sqrt{ mg \over{c \rho A}} $$
Say we have ...
- 546
13
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Throwing a Football. Is it truly parabolic?
Driving into work, I started thinking about the arc of something being thrown and was puzzled about how gravity's affect is squared per second for falling bodies. Intuitively that implies the shape ...
- 291
13
votes
7
answers
30k
views
How does gravity affect bullets?
I read recently that if you hold a bullet in one hand and a pistol in the other, both hands at the same height, and subsequently fired the pistol at the same time as dropping the bullet, both bullets ...
- 133
13
votes
2
answers
7k
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Will a bullet dropped and a bullet fired from a gun horizontally REALLY hit the ground at the same time when air drag is taken into account?
In a world without air, I understand they definitely would. However, with drag taken into account, I think they wouldn't. Since the drag force varies proportional to the square of speed (ignoring the ...
- 305