Abstract
Some children enjoy playing with the spring–loaded, plastic toy cannon that accompanies many model pirate ships. This cannon pivots in such a way that it can be fired at any angle from about −15 degrees to 195 degrees when viewed from a position directly in front of the cannon. The spring provides each fired projectile with approximately the same initial velocity. This toy, together with a digital camera, can be used with high school students to demonstrate the influence of angle on parabolic trajectories and, simultaneously, to explore the underlying parametric equations. In particular, students can discover and verify that the vertices of projectile motion paths for a given initial speed and a range of launch angles trace an ellipse.
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