About Projectile Motion
Blast a car out of a cannon, and challenge yourself to hit a target! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set parameters such as angle, initial speed, and mass. Explore vector representations, and add air resistance to investigate the factors that influence drag.
How to play Projectile Motion
Everything is hands-on: drag, click and experiment — the simulation reacts instantly. Blast a car out of a cannon, and challenge yourself to hit a target!
Questions & answers
- What is Projectile Motion?
- Projectile Motion is a free interactive simulation from PhET Interactive Simulations (University of Colorado Boulder) that you can play right in your browser on crumble.lol — no downloads and no sign-up. Blast a car out of a cannon, and challenge yourself to hit a target! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects.
- What can kids learn from Projectile Motion?
- It helps kids explore: determine how each parameter (initial height, initial angle, initial speed, mass, diameter, and altitude) affects the trajectory of an object, with and without air resistance. predict how varying the initial conditions will affect a projectile’s path, and provide an explanation for the prediction. estimate where an object will land, given its initial conditions. determine that the x and y motion of a projectile are independent. investigate the variables that affect the drag force. describe the the effect that the drag force has on the velocity and acceleration. discuss projectile motion using common vocabulary (such as: launch angle, initial speed, initial height, range, time).
- What age is Projectile Motion good for?
- It is designed for elementary school (roughly ages 5–10) up to university, and curious kids outside that range can absolutely enjoy poking around it too.
- Is Projectile Motion free to play?
- Yes — Projectile Motion is completely free on crumble.lol and runs fully in your browser on computers and tablets.