The speed of a projectile object describes the distance that object is moving and how long it takes for that movement to be complete. For example, if you throw a ball across your yard and it takes 2 seconds to travel 15 meters, the speed of that projectile can be found by dividing the time traveled by the distance traveled. You can find these measurements with a tape measure, a stop watch and a calculator.
Instructions
1. Use a stop watch to find the amount of time it takes for your projectile to get from its point of origin to its destination. The point of origin is the position it's at before it starts moving, and the destination is the point it's at once it stops moving. For example, if your projectile is a basketball and you roll it across your driveway, the origin would be the point where you stood when you rolled the basketball and the destination would be where the basketball stopped moving. Find this in seconds.
2. Use a tape measure to find the exact distance, in feet, between the two points identified in "Step 1." For a basketball, measure the distance between the point where you rolled the basketball and the point where it stopped moving.
3. Divide the distance number from "Step 2" by the time number in "Step 1." If you rolled a basketball across your yard 50 feet and it took 5 seconds to get from "A" to "B," 50 divided by 5 is the speed of 10 feet per second for your projectile.
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