Projectile motion is the motion of an object under the influence of gravity. It can be broken down into two components: horizontal motion and vertical motion. Horizontal motion is unaffected by gravity and follows the regular kinematic equations of straight line motion. Vertical motion is affected by the downward acceleration due to gravity and also follows straight line kinematic equations using the acceleration due to gravity. Understanding projectile motion requires analyzing the horizontal and vertical components separately using the appropriate kinematic equations for each direction.