Sunday, September 21, 2008

ping-pong projectile


This weekend I was at my friends house and playing a game of ping pong. Justin was my opponent and he beat me by a lot because he's a ping pong pro, but during the match i noticed that the ball traveled as a projectile. A projectile is an object that is traveling through the air with only gravity acting upon it. This means that when i hit the ball, it travels at a constant forward velocity but it's vertical velocity is constantly changing due to gravity. If i hit the ball with positive vertical velocity over the net, it travels upward but at a decreasing rate, due to the negative acceleration of gravity, until it reaches its peak and vertical velocity is zero. Its vertical velocity then decreases at an increases rate till the ball hits the other side of the table. All the while, its horizontal velocity remains constant. Luckily there was no wind in the garage to affect the projectile's path. Also, the wind resistance of the ping pong ball was not great enough to disrupt the projectile motion.

1 comment:

jus said...

chris, i'm not a ping pong pro, its just that i know how to apply physics better!