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Notes in Applied Mathematics: 1

1) This document discusses a mathematical model of vertical projectile motion where resistance is proportional to speed. The model derives an equation (Equation 2) that describes the speed of the projectile over time based on its initial speed, gravity, mass, and a resistance coefficient. 2) It then integrates this equation to derive an expression (Equation 4) for the projectile's altitude as a function of time. 3) The document presents graphs of this altitude equation for different initial speeds to illustrate how resistance affects the projectile's trajectory compared to an ideal case without resistance.

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1K views2 pages

Notes in Applied Mathematics: 1

1) This document discusses a mathematical model of vertical projectile motion where resistance is proportional to speed. The model derives an equation (Equation 2) that describes the speed of the projectile over time based on its initial speed, gravity, mass, and a resistance coefficient. 2) It then integrates this equation to derive an expression (Equation 4) for the projectile's altitude as a function of time. 3) The document presents graphs of this altitude equation for different initial speeds to illustrate how resistance affects the projectile's trajectory compared to an ideal case without resistance.

Uploaded by

John
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
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Math 312 - Applied Math handout # 1

Vertical projectile motion with resistance proportional to speed

Consider Newton’s Second Law for vertical motion (with y measured upwards):
dv k
dt mv g, v 0 v0 (1)

Equation (1) can be solved using the integrating factor exp kt/m or by the method of undetermined
coefficients (try both if you’ve taken an ODE class!); the latter is a little quicker, so I write
kt/m gm
v ce
k
and using the initial condition, we find that c gm/k v 0 and so the speed of the ball is given by
gm kt/m gm
vt v0 e (2)
k k
Notice from this equation that the terminal speed v is defined by
gm
v lim v t
t k
which, for a feather, snowflake or whiffle ball, is pretty much achieved before it hits the ground.

Suppose however that we are really only interested in the altitude y as a function of time; OK – if the
ball is projected upward from y 0 then y 0 0. Hence from (2)
t gm ks/m gm
yt v0 e ds (3)
0 k k
where s is a dummy variable for t. Upon integrating we obtain

yt m v 0 gm e ks/m gms | s t (4)


k k k s 0

m v0 gm gm
1 e kt/m t, 0 t T
k k k
where T is the time at which the ball hits the ground. Now for an interesting question: does the ball
take longer to rise to its maximum height, or to fall back from that height? All I’m going to do here
is to graph y t for various values of k/m and v 0 , and then draw some conclusions.

Choosing k/m 6 s 1 and v 0 5, 10, 15, 20 m/s, with g 9. 8 m/s 2 we find for v 0 5 m/s
6t
yt 1. 1056 1 e 1. 6333t
the graph of which is the lowest of the four shown; the others get higher with increasing values of v 0
as would be expected.
Note that the graph below is not the path of the projectile.
3

2.5

1.5

0.5

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2t 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4

Now what do you think?

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