Question

Why is projectile motion parabolic?

Answer 1

Projectile motion is parabolic because the vertical position of the object is influenced only by a constant acceleration, (if constant drag etc. is also assumed) and also because horizontal velocity is generally constant.

Put simply, basic projectile motion is parabolic because its related equation of motion,

`x(t) = 1/2 at^2 + v_i t + x_i`

is quadratic, and therefore describes a parabola.

However, I can explain a bit more in-depth why this works, if you'd like, by doing a little integration. Starting with a constant acceleration,

`a = k`,

we can move on to velocity by integrating with respect to `t`. (`a = k` is interpreted as being `a = kt^0`)

`v(t) = int k dt = kt + v_i`

The constant of integration here is interpreted to be initial velocity, so I've just named it `v_i` instead of `C`.

Now, to position:

`x(t) = int (kt + v_i) dt`
`x(t) = 1/2 kt^2 + v_i t + x_i`

Again, the constant of integration is interpreted in this case to be initial position. (denoted `x_i`)

Of course, this equation will probably look familiar to you. It's the equation of motion I described above.

Don't worry if you haven't learned about integration yet; the only thing you need to worry about is the power of `t` as we move from acceleration to velocity to position. If `t` was present in the initial `a = k` equation, with a degree other than `0`, (in other words, if `a` is changing over time) then after integration we would end up with a degree different from `2`. But since `a` is constant, `t` will always be squared in the equation for position, resulting in a parabola.

Since acceleration due to gravity is generally fairly constant at around `9.8 m/s^2`, we can say that the trajectory of a projectile is parabolic.

A case where the path wouldn't appear to be parabolic is if an object were dropped, falling straight downwards, with no horizontal velocity. In this case the path looks more like a line, but it's actually a parabola which has been infinitely horizontally compressed. In general, the smaller horizontal velocity, the more the parabola is compressed horizontally.