Saving the Earth Can Be Fun

This picture shows Gavin making a game out of saving the Earth.  He just ran out of his stick of chapstick and knew he should throw it away.  I caught him just as he was shooting it into the rubbish net. The empty chapstick container is a perfect example of a projectile.  A projectile is anything dropped, shot, struck, or thrown under the influence of gravity where air resistance is nonexistant or negligable.  A projectile's velocity can be separated into two parts, horizontal and vertical.  Throughout the path of the chapstick container, its horizontal velocity does not change.  Although the horizontal velocity remains constant, the vertical velocity of the chapstick container changes until it hits the base of the rubbish can, assuming its path is not obstructed by any other object.  The vertical velocity of the chapstick is completely independent of the horizontal velocity and the other way around.  If Gavin were to shoot the chapstick again with less force, missing the shot, the chapstick would hit the floor at the same time as it hits the bottom of the rubbish can.