Lecture Notes: Gravity and Projectile Motion

Key Concept: Gravity and Projectile Motion

• Main Idea: When a bullet is fired horizontally and another is dropped from the same height, both will hit the ground simultaneously.
• Reason: Gravity acts equally on both bullets irrespective of their horizontal speed.

Experiment: Firing vs. Dropping a Bullet

• Setup:
  • Fire a bullet horizontally.
  • Drop another bullet from the same height.
• Observation: Both bullets hit the ground at the same time.
• Explanation:
  • Gravity affects both bullets equally.
  • The horizontal motion does not influence the rate at which they fall.

Application: Pistol vs. Rifle

• Scenario:
  • Fire a bullet from a pistol and a rifle.
  • Drop a bullet from the same height.
• Observation:
  • Rifle bullet travels further horizontally than pistol bullet.
  • Both fired bullets hit the ground at the same time as the dropped bullet.

Conclusion

• Horizontal Distance: Does not affect time of fall.
• Gravity: Acts uniformly on all objects, causing them to hit the ground simultaneously regardless of horizontal distance traveled.
• Takeaway: Gravity makes no distinctions based on horizontal speed; all objects fall at the same rate when only gravity acts on them.