The purpose of the Ballistic Car is to show that the horizontal component of the ball’s velocity must equal that of the car itself despite the large continuous changes in the vertical component of the ball’s velocity, and explains how the ball can fall right back into the barrel of the gun. This concept of projectile motion has advanced over many centuries.
Concepts in this demonstration include the understanding of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, which were created in 1687, and also the Physics law of projectile motion. Newton used them to explain and investigate the motion of many physical objects and systems. For example, in the third volume of the text, Newton showed that these laws of motion, combined with his law of universal gravitation, explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that together laid the foundation for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it, and its motion in response to said forces.
They have been expressed in several different ways over nearly three centuries, and can be summarized as follows:
First law: When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force.
Second law: F = ma. The vector sum of the forces F on an object is equal to the mass m of that object multiplied by the acceleration vector a of the object.
Third law: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.
The concept of projectile motion was used by fighter pilots and bombers across the globe during WW2. Pilots of the allied and axis forces used the concept of projectile motion to successfully bomb their targets.
The bombers had to calculate how long it would take the bombs to reach their target and they found out they had to release the bombs a couple seconds before they flew over their target for the bombs to hit successfully. The delay before actually releasing the bombs follow the horizontal motion of the planes for a short period of time after released from the planes. The bombs did not drop down straight,they formed a half parabola on the way down.