Question

To determine the y-component of a projectile’s velocity, what operation is performed on the angle of the launch?1) secant2) tangent3) cosine4) sine

Answer 1

In projectile motion we have the following triangle form by the initial velocity:

Assuming that the angle of the launch is "A". From the right triangle that is formed we can use the following trigonometric function:

$\sin A=\frac{v_y}{v}$

Now we multiply both sides by "v":

$v\sin A=v_y$

Therefore, in order to determine the y-component of the velocity we need to use the function "sine".