Physics 1: Projectile Lab
Written by Elena Koslover
Edited by Jennifer Cabello
In this lab, you will shoot a projectile across the room using a rubber band and calculate how far it flies.
- 1 wooden chopstick, with a couple of metal nuts on one end to increase the weight; the tail end of the chopstick should be marked at 1 cm intervals (up to 5 cm)
- 1 meter stick
- 1 small metric ruler (in addition to the meter stick!)
- 1 rudimentary balance, consisting of a wooden or cardboard bar with a hole at the center of mass and 2 holes equidistant from the center, with a ziploc bag attached to each edge hole
- 5 pennies
- 25 beads (Note: in the advanced lab, students measure the mass of the beads themselves; for the basic lab, however, the mass of the particular beads should be measured in advance and given to the students)
- 1 quart-size ziploc bag with a hole at the top
- 1 package of candy with net weight on the order of 200g, or anything else of that approximate weight where the weight is marked on the package, and where the packaging itself is light (no metal cans)
- 3 paper targets
- 1 rubber band (standard 5mm size, or similar)
- a flat table or desk of reasonable height, with at least ~3 m free space in front of it for launching the projectile
- ideally, 1 calculator per student; at a minimum, 1 per group