An important thing to keep in mind as we discuss upward vertical motion → we are talking about objects launching straight up into the air. Ideally, without wind or disproportionate weight or any other factors, an object launched upward from the ground would move in a straight line. That is the type of motion we are dealing with here.

Two weeks ago we added an element to our motion repertoire: vertical motion.

We started talking about motion in terms of falling - it just seemed easier to start with falling since we are all familiar with gravity

We took a little detour last week to talk more in depth about the kinematic formulas - what each variable means and where they came from.

When an object falls there are a few things to keep in mind -

When an object hits the ground, we say that its final position (Yf) is zero.

Objects that fall always have an initial velocity of 0 m/s because they are still in the instant before they fall.

Finally, we always replace the a in our kinematic formulas with -9.8 m/s2. A negative because gravity pulls objects DOWN and we have set the standard that up is positive and down is negative.

When we talk about an object that is moving up, things are not all that different.

Remember a when we talked about the stomp rocket - you step on the launch pad and up they go.

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