Sunday, October 5, 2008

More Physics in Football!


Last night was the football game against St. Louis and Iolani won!!! It was 35 to 30 :D It got really intense at the end with the drums...and everyone was yelling "Go Defense!" yep. Anyway, projectiles.

When the person does the kick off for the other team and the band plays "Back in Black", the ball flies in a projectile motion. In a projectile, there are two motions, a horizontal and a vertical motion. The horizontal velocity stays constant throughout because gravity has no effect on it. On the other hand, the vertical velocity decreases at a rate of -9.8 m/s. At the very peak of the ball's motion, the vertical velocity is zero while the horizontal velocity stays the same. As it flies back to the ground, the vertical velocity increases negatively at a rate of -9.8 m/s.

The vertical displacement would be zero if the ball is kicked off the ground and the other team does not catch the ball. However, if the other team does catch the ball, the vertical displacement is the height of the ball when it is caught. The horizontal displacement is the distance it traveled from where it was kicked to where it was caught.

Yep, the game was super exciting at the end! And all the Raiders looked super happy. Today I talked to a friend on the other team and he said he considered quitting football that night. St. Louis must've been very sad.

1 comment:

Jaimie Fong said...

yay! iolani won! and we learned about projectiles!