Identify Projectile in Sports: Make groups in your class and, during your physical education period, select 5

8.5 — Extension Activity

Identify Projectile in Sports: Make groups in your class and, during your physical education period, select 5 sports and try to apply the projectile principle in them, writing down your observations in the table below:

S.No.	Sports	Activity/Skill	Observation
1
2
3
4
5

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Concept understanding — Projectile Motion

Projectile Motion

Throw a ball to a friend and it never travels in a straight line — it rises, curves at the top, and falls back down. That curved path is projectile motion: the motion of any object that is thrown, launched or released into the air and then left to move under gravity alone. A cricket ball after release, an arrow shot from a bow, or a shot-put after it leaves the hand are all projectiles.

Two Independent Motions at Once

While gravity pulls a projectile downward, it also keeps moving forward. These two motions happen at the same time but completely independently of each other: the forward (horizontal) motion is steady, while the downward (vertical) motion is constantly speeded up by gravity.

Note

This independence is the key idea in projectile motion. It means the forward part and the falling part can be thought about separately, even though they occur together. A ball thrown horizontally and a ball simply dropped from the same height, at the same instant, will hit the ground at exactly the same time — the forward motion does not delay the fall.

Why It Matters in Sport

A fielder instinctively runs to the spot where a ball will land — an intuitive, practised sense of projectile motion. A javelin or shot-put throw, a basketball free throw, and a goalkeeper's goal kick are all managing the same physics: the path is a curve, and the outcome depends on the speed and angle at which the object leaves the hand or foot.

The Shape of the Path

Provided air resistance is ignored, the path is always a symmetrical curve called a parabola. The projectile rises to a highest point and then falls; the time spent rising equals the time spent falling, and, for equal launch and landing heights, the launch speed equals the landing speed.

Three quantities describe this path: range (the horizontal distance covered), maximum height reached, and time of flight (total time in the air). A steeper launch angle gives more height and a longer time in the air but less range; a shallower angle gives more range but less height. For a launch and landing at the same height, the greatest range is achieved at a launch angle of 45 degrees. …

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Any sport where a ball or the athlete's own body leaves the ground and follows a curved (parabolic) path under gravity is demonstrating projectile motion — pick any five and describe the skill and what you observe.

The chapter lists both objects acting as projectiles (basketball, football, shot-put, hammer, discus, javelin, golf ball, volleyball, tennis ball) and the body itself acting as a projectile (high jump, long jump, gymnastics, diving, figure skating, ski jumping). A model five-sport table:

S.No.	Sports	Activity/Skill	Observation
1	Basketball	Free throw	Ball follows a parabolic arc; angle of release (around 45-55°) and speed together decide if it reaches the hoop
2	Javelin	Throw	Speed and angle/height of release together determine the distance thrown
3	Long jump	Take-off	The athlete's own body becomes the projectile, following a parabolic flight path

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