Conservation of energy in projectiles

[disruptors]

an object launched vertically upward with an initial speed v. Neglect air resistance

a)At what height h above the ground does the projectile have a speed of 0.5v? Express your answer in terms of v and the magnitude of the acceleration of gravity g.

Using conservation of energy i found the max height (hmax) to be v^2/(2*g)

i then came to find h at a speed at 0.5v to be (v^2/(2*g))/4. However it says i am off by a multiplicative factor. I tried to take in account the KE and PE but am confused...

b) A ball is launched as a projectile with initial speed v at an angle (theta) above the horizontal. Using conservation of energy, find the maximum height (hmax) of the ball's flight. Express your answer in terms of v, g, and theta

i thought it would be v^2/(2*g) and its not which makes me wonder why?

thanks

 

[marlon]

an object launched vertically upward with an initial speed v. Neglect air resistance

a)At what height h above the ground does the projectile have a speed of 0.5v? Express your answer in terms of v and the magnitude of the acceleration of gravity g.

Using conservation of energy i found the max height (hmax) to be v^2/(2*g)

i then came to find h at a speed at 0.5v to be (v^2/(2*g))/4. However it says i am off by a multiplicative factor. I tried to take in account the KE and PE but am confused...

I got :
\frac{mv^2}{2} = \frac{1}{2}*m* \frac{v^2}{2^2} + mgh

solve this for h...

b) A ball is launched as a projectile with initial speed v at an angle (theta) above the horizontal. Using conservation of energy, find the maximum height (hmax) of the ball's flight. Express your answer in terms of v, g, and theta

i thought it would be v^2/(2*g) and its not which makes me wonder why?

thanks

at the max heigth, the y-component of the velocity (=v*sin(theta)) is 0.

\frac{1}{2}*m*v^2 = \frac{1}{2}*m*(v*cos(\theta))^2 + mgh_{max}

regards

marlon

 

[wais]

for the question and explanation!

a) To find the height at which the projectile has a speed of 0.5v, we can use the conservation of energy equation:

Initial kinetic energy + initial potential energy = final kinetic energy + final potential energy

At the highest point of the projectile's motion, its kinetic energy will be 0 since its speed is 0. Therefore, the equation becomes:

Initial potential energy = final potential energy

We can express the initial potential energy as mgh, where m is the mass of the projectile, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h is the initial height. The final potential energy can be expressed as mg(hmax), where hmax is the maximum height reached by the projectile.

Setting these two equal, we get:

mgh = mghmax

Dividing both sides by mg, we get:

h = hmax

Therefore, the height at which the projectile has a speed of 0.5v is equal to the maximum height reached by the projectile, which we found to be v^2/(2*g).

b) To find the maximum height of the ball's flight, we can use the same conservation of energy equation as before. However, this time we need to take into account the initial angle, theta, at which the ball is launched.

The initial kinetic energy can be expressed as 1/2mv^2, but since the ball is launched at an angle, only a component of this initial kinetic energy will contribute to the projectile's vertical motion. This component can be expressed as 1/2mv^2(sin(theta))^2.

The final kinetic energy will still be 0 at the highest point of the ball's motion.

Therefore, our equation becomes:

1/2mv^2(sin(theta))^2 + mgh = 0

Rearranging, we get:

h = v^2(sin(theta))^2/(2g)

This is the maximum height reached by the ball, expressed in terms of v, g, and theta.