2008 HS Photo Contest Pictures

2008 High School Physics Photo Contest Pictures

2008 AAPT High School Physics Photo Contest
Winner's Showcase

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Special Recognition - Possible New Category

Title: Human Projectile
Student: Joey Moro
School: Ithaca High School, Ithaca, NY
Teacher: Deborah Lynn

I took a photograph of a friend jumping over a gap, to illustrate the freefall path in projectiles. It is not perfect freefall because of air resistance, but in this case it is negligible. With that in mind, there is no horizontal acceleration. The only acceleration in this case, is in the vertical direction, that of gravity. Acceleration due to gravity is about 9.8m/s2. This force causes the projectile to move in a parabolic path toward the earth. This parabolic path, with enough horizontal velocity, will continue forever falling toward the earth, at a rate equal to the rate at which the earth curves away due to its shape. This is how objects can orbit the earth, by constantly falling, which is what freefall is, and what I tried to illustrate.


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