The purpose of this lab was to have students use the equations for projectiles
fired at an angle in order to calculate the velocity of a basketball launched
from a giant slingshot. Bungee cords and an ice cream bucket were used for
the slingshot. Students did two or three trials at several different
angles. The angle was measured with meter sticks and a protractor at a distance.
Distance the ball traveled (x), the time in the air (t), and velocity of the
object (v in m/s) were calculated. These were the experimental
values. The accepted value for vx and vy was calculated
using x = v*cos(theta) and y = v*sin(theta) and the height of the ball was
calculated using 1/2gt2. The accepted value for distance
traveled was calculated using x = vt and the accepted value for time was calculated
using v = gt. The percent error for distance and time were calculated.