Drop Shoot Accessory

The Drop-Shoot Accessory is an easy-to-use tool that helps students better understand the independence between the horizontal and vertical motion of a projectile. Connect the accessory to either the short or long range projectile launchers, hang one ball from the magnet and fire away. The fired ball strikes the hanging ball, causing one ball to shoot horizontally at the same instant the other ball falls straight down. Both balls hit the ground at the same time, regardless of the fired projectile’s muzzle velocity, provided the Projectile Launcher is level. This device also provides an

interesting demonstration of Conservation of Momentum in collisions.

When the (included) hollow steel ball is used, the two balls are both fired horizontally at two different speeds. A

Photogate and Time-of-Flight accessory can also be used to directly measure time of flight.