Projectile Motion, One Step at a Time

You'll learnto split a launch velocity into horizontal and vertical pieces that move independently.

A kicked ball, split into two motions that never talk to each other. Watch the vectors, then solve the whole problem — time, range, height — with nothing but the components.

8 STEPS · 7 QUICK CHECKS · g = 10 m/s² · v9

MOTION LAB

Before you start

What you're looking at

A soccer ball at the launch point with its velocity arrow, and a faint dashed curve tracing where it will fly.

The question

For one kick, find the total time in the air, how far it lands, and its maximum height.

Watch for

Watch the launch arrow split into a horizontal piece gravity can't touch and a vertical piece it can.

What the symbols mean

The blue arrow is the horizontal component, the amber arrow is the vertical; g pulls only down, air resistance ignored.

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