How does the horizontal component of velocity change throughout the flight?
Understand the Problem
The question is inquiring about the behavior of the horizontal component of velocity during the flight of a projectile. This involves analyzing how the horizontal velocity remains constant due to the lack of horizontal forces acting on the projectile, assuming air resistance is negligible.
Answer
The horizontal component of velocity remains constant.
The horizontal component of velocity remains constant throughout the flight because there are no horizontal forces acting to change it.
Answer for screen readers
The horizontal component of velocity remains constant throughout the flight because there are no horizontal forces acting to change it.
More Information
In projectile motion, only gravity acts on the projectile, which impacts only the vertical component of velocity. The lack of horizontal forces ensures that the horizontal velocity remains unchanged.
Tips
A common error is to assume that some external factor like drag influences the horizontal velocity. However, in ideal projectile motion, air resistance is typically neglected.
Sources
- Horizontal and Vertical Velocity of a Projectile - physicsclassroom.com
- Q&A on the horizontal component of velocity - Quora - quora.com
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