When you throw, kick or launch anything, it never travels in a straight line — it follows a smooth curve called a parabola. Projectile motion is the physics of that curve: how far an object flies, how high it climbs and where it lands, decided entirely by its launch speed, its angle and gravity.
From a cricketer’s six to a basketball’s perfect arc, from a fountain’s spray to a rocket’s early climb — projectile motion explains them all. Master it and you can predict exactly where a moving object will land.
Constant horizontal speed plus a steady downward pull together trace one symmetric curve.
A low angle gives a flat, fast path; a high angle a tall, slow one. 45° balances both for the greatest distance.
Range grows with the square of speed — double the launch speed and it flies four times as far.
A constant 9.8 m/s² downward acceleration acts through the whole flight, curving the path back to the ground.
Split any launch into two independent motions: a steady horizontal glide and a vertical rise-and-fall under gravity. Add them together and you get the classic curved trajectory — up to a peak, then symmetrically back down.
The range depends on sin(2θ), which is largest when 2θ = 90° — a 45° launch. Angles on either side, like 30° and 60°, give shorter and equal distances. That’s why complementary angles land in the very same spot.
At every instant the velocity splits into a horizontal part (vₓ = v·cos θ, unchanging) and a vertical part (v_y = v·sin θ, shrinking on the way up, growing on the way down). At the very top v_y = 0 — the object moves purely sideways.
Horizontal distance depends on launch speed v, angle θ and gravity g (≈ 9.8 m/s²).
Turn the concepts above into a skill — play the game and get instant feedback.