Projectile Motion

The variables within projectile motion are the distance of the balloon after being thrown, how long it takes for the balloon to hit the ground, and lastly the maximum height of the balloon when being launched into the air.

A projectile has a horizontal motion component and a vertical motion component. Gravity only affects the vertical motion of a projectile. Because there is nothing affecting the horizontal motion component, the horizontal velocity is constant. Gravity is an acceleration that acts downward. It causes objects moving in an upward direction to slow. On the other hand, it causes objects moving in a downward direction to speed up.

For upwardly launched projectiles the speed that it goes up equals the speed that it hits the ground. The time it takes to reach its highest point equals the time it takes to hit the ground. It's launched with an initial velocity of zero, and to accelerate the projectile a force must be applied. The gravity of the horizontal motion is constant since we assume the acceleration is zero during launching.

The modifications needed to increase the range of the projectile would be to increase the time the balloon is in the air. In order to increase the time that the water balloon is in the air, the speed at which it is launched needs to be faster and the arm of the catapult needs to increase in length. The faster the arm releases the balloon, the faster the balloon will travel therefore increasing the distance within the time it is in the air. The longer the arm is, the farther the balloon will land due to the arm being able to reach a larger height a projecting it further than a shorter catapult arm would.