This morning for breakfast I decided to open my new box of Honeynut Cheerios and surprisingly I found that not only does this healthy cereal help lower cholesterol, it also teaches you about physics! As I poured myself a bowl, out fell my very own "Penguin Launcher". Intrigued as to what this little toy was, I turned the box around and to my delight I saw that the entire back of the cereal box was covered in diagrams relating to projectiles! The toy is basically a plastic "penguin" that you place on the launcher which you then press down to fling the penguin both upwards and forwards at the same time. When you launch the penguin you give it both an initial horizontal velocity and an initial vertical velocity. Although the horizontal velocity is constant the entire time the penguin is in freefall, the vertical velocity accelerates at a rate of -9.8 m/s giving the flight of the penguin a parabolic shape. While it is in the air it is only under the influence of gravity. Without gravity, the parabolic shape would be impossible because the penguin would continue in a straight line path as both its horizontal velocity and vertical velocity stay constant. One one the sections on the back of the cereal box asked "Do you have enough projectile pop to push your Penguin over the top of the box?" Being a good physics student, I took the challenge and decided to see if I could launch my penguin over the box. It took me a couple tries but I finally got the pengin to go oever the box. The trick is to launch it really hard so it has an initial vertical velocity great enough to reach a height greater than the cereal box. If I timed the amount of time it was in the air and how high the penguin went, I could calculate its inital vertical velocity using the equation y = (initial velocity)(time)+ 1/2 (vertical acceleration)(time squared).
Notice the parabolic shape of the projectile motion!
