🎡AP Physics 1
1. A student rolls a cart along a straight, horizontal track. At the same instant the cart passes a launch point, a ball is launched from the cart and moves in the plane of the floor, as shown in Figure 1. Air resistance is negligible.
Figure 1. Cart moving along a horizontal track; at the instant the cart passes the launch point (t = 0), a ball is launched from the cart with initial velocity relative to the cart.
Figure 2. Axes for plotting the ball’s vertical velocity component versus time from to .
On the axes shown in Figure 2, sketch a graph of the ball's vertical velocity component as a function of time from until .
Derive an expression for the time when the ball returns to the launch height in terms of and . Begin your derivation by writing a fundamental physics principle or an equation from the reference information.
Derive an expression for the ball's horizontal displacement in the ground frame from to in terms of , , , and . Begin your derivation by writing a fundamental physics principle or an equation from the reference information.
Indicate whether the x-component of the ball's velocity as measured by the observer on the cart increases, decreases, or remains constant during the time interval . An observer on the cart measures the ball's motion during the flight. Assume the cart is an inertial reference frame because it moves with constant velocity relative to the ground.
Increases
Decreases
Remains constant
Justify your response.
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