A golf ball flies from the tee to the green, air resistance ignored. What happens to its horizontal velocity during the flight?
A thrown ball crosses the whole yard. After it leaves the hand, nothing touches it. What keeps its sideways motion going all the way to the far fence?
In earlier grades you saw that a steadily moving object keeps moving while the forces on it are balanced. A force is needed to change a velocity, not to keep it going.
Answer the yard question first: nothing keeps the ball's sideways motion going, and nothing needs to.
Once the ball leaves the hand, the hand's force ends. A thrown ball gets no forward force mid-flight.
Gravity still acts on the ball, but gravity points straight down. It has no horizontal part.
So in the horizontal direction, no force acts on the airborne ball at all. With no horizontal force, nothing can change the ball's horizontal velocity. The sideways motion continues on its own.
A flicked bottle cap flies over the gap between two desks. Why does its horizontal velocity stay the same?
A supply crate is released from a cargo plane, air resistance ignored. After release, does the crate keep receiving a forward force from the plane?
A snowball leaves a thrower's glove and flies over a parking lot. What keeps its horizontal motion going mid-flight?
Nothing needs to keep it going.
Once airborne, no horizontal force acts on the snowball.
A velocity changes only when a force acts, so the horizontal velocity simply continues.
Nothing keeps it going: with no horizontal force, the horizontal motion continues on its own.
Greta says a thrown dart carries some of the throw's force with it as it flies. Is she correct?
A basketball pass crosses the court, airborne. Why does its horizontal velocity hold steady between the two players?
A projectile is mid-flight. What would it take to change its horizontal velocity?
A volleyball leaves the server's hand. What does the ball get from the hand after contact ends?