INTRODUCTORY COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS

NAME: AROOJ MUKARRAM

EXERCISE 2.2 When air friction is included in analyzing motion of projectile, there is an additional force that is predominantly proportional to the velocity of the projectile squared; the equations of motion become: dx = vx dt dvx = bvvx dt dy = vy dt dvy = g bvvy dt where b is a drag constant and v =
2 2 vx + vy is the velocity of the projec-

tile. Plot the trajectories for various launch angles when b = 0.04m1 . Find the launch angle that has the greatest range, max , for xed launch velocity v0 = 10m/s. How does max vary with b for 0m1 < b < 0.1m1 ? SOLUTION TRAJECTORY OF PROJECTILE WITH AIR DRAG: Using Eulers method to integrate given equations of motion: xn+1 = xn + vxn t yn+1 = yn + vyn t vxn+1 = vxn bvn vxn t vyn+1 = vyn gt bvn vyn t vn+1 =
2 2 vxn+1 + vyn+1

Figure 1 gives code for the program that computes the trajectory of projectile with air drag. Figure 2 shows the output for initial speed v0 = 10.0m/s, b = 0.04m1 and launching angles = 30.0, 35.0, 40.0, 45.0, 50.0, 55.0 degrees. For comparison, we also plot trajectory of projectile without air drag in Figure 3 using the same ring angles, initial velocity and x and y scales.

Figure 1 - Code for computing trajectory of projectile with air drag

Figure 2 - Trajectory of projectile with air drag

Figure 3 - Trajectory of projectile without air drag LAUNCH ANGLE FOR GREATEST RANGE: The code in Figure 1 is modied to include angles from 0 to 90 degrees (in increments of 1 degrees) and compute the range (horizontal distance between landing and launching points) for each angle. Angle that gives greatest range is max . Program is shown in Figure 4 and output in Figure 5 for initial speed v0 = 10.0m/s and b = 0.04m1 . 4

Figure 4 - Code for computing launch angle for greatest range

Figure 5 - Output of program in Figure 4 VARIATION IN LAUNCH ANGLE FOR GREATEST RANGE WITH CHANGE IN DRAG CONSTANT: The code is further modied to compute launch angles for greatest ranges corresponding to dierent drag constants. b is varied from 0.0m1 to 0.1m1 and max is computed for each value of b. Initial speed is v0 = 10.0m/s. Program code is shown in Figure 6. Figure 7 gives tabular output and graph between max and b is plotted in Figure 8.

Figure 6 - Program for computing theta max for dierent values of b 7

Figure 7 - Output of program in Figure 6

Figure 8 - Output of program in Figure 6 - Graph between theta max and b