Projectile Motion

Lab 1
Catapult Lab

Objective: To apply the laws of Physics and the equations for projectile motion to design a catapult that
can accurately launch a ping-pong ball and hit a designated target. To compare your hypothesis to your
experimental data and understand differences between the two.

Materials and Methods:

In this lab you will be building a catapult or trebuchet. Your catapult will need to be able to launch a
pingpong ball in the range of 3-9 feet. Your catapult must be able to launch a pingpong ball at any angle
between 0 and 90 degrees.

You will be given the distance to a target. Once you have your distance to your target, you cannot test
fire the catapult before lab day. You will need to make adjustments to your catapult without testing it
before lab day. Therefore, you must design and test your catapult so that on “target” day you can make
whatever adjustments are needed. It is strongly recommended that you determine the speed of your ping-
pong ball (distance the ping-pong ball moved/time it took the ping-pong to hit the ground).

The following materials are suggested for you to build your catapults/trebuchets:

Rubber Bands
Tape
Glue
Rulers
Flat pieces of wood (like popcicle sticks)
Wood Blocks
Screws
Paper

The appearance of the catapult will not be judged, but you should pay careful attention to design
elements that affect the ability of your catapult to adjust to new distances and to maintain a reliable
speed.

You must create a lab report for this lab. It must include the following:
1) Title Page
2) Introduction
3) Hypothesis
4) Design Plan (Procedure)
5) Experimental Data Analysis
6) Conclusion

The title page, introduction, and conclusion of the lab report should be neatly typed or written and
sections should be well marked. All answers are presented/explained in complete sentences
excluding the list of materials which may be bulleted.
 The following describes the information that must be present in each section to ensure full credit:

1. Introduction:
 The purpose of this lab (objective)
 Key terminology (speed, velocity, lever, etc.)

2. Hypothesis:
 Your best guess on how FAR your ping-pong will go.
 Your best guess on how FAST your ping-pong will go.

3. Design Plan:
1) A list of materials used
2) Detailed steps on how the catapult was built
3) A diagram of your catapult. The diagram should have all dimensions labeled (including
units) and should be neatly drawn. Your diagram should be drawn on plain white paper and should fill
most of a single page.

4. Experimental Data Analysis:

1) Data table that includes time of flight(s), distance flown in horizontal direction, and angle
of launch. You must test at least 3 different angles using 3 replicate trials for each angle.
2) A value for the average speed of the ping-pong ball (add up the speed from all three trials
and divide by 3) and an explanation of how the speed was determined.
3) How did changing the angle affect the distance your ping-pong ball flew? How did changing
the angle affect the speed of your ping-pong ball?

5. Conclusion:
Your conclusion should include an overview of your findings. Discuss why the lab was
successful or unsuccessful and describe any sources of error that might be present. Give some examples
of real life projectiles whose landing spots must be carefully predicted. Discuss possible improvements
for your lab.

Point Value for this lab:

Title Page +1pt
Introduction +2pts
Hypothesis +5 pts
Design Plan +5pts
Data Analysis +5 pts
Conclusion +3 pts
-3 pts for missing the target distance
- 2 pts for title, intro and conclusion not being typed.
___________________________________________
21 pts total