In The Name of God Analytical Mechanics

Projectiles: Are They Coming or Going?

Original Article Author: James S. Walker

By: M.H. Malek Khotaee P. Babaee M. Jamshidi M.R. Zangeneh

 Introducti on In this presentation, we discuss about radial

distance of a projectile.
Radial distance is the size of Radial (Location) Vector of a projectile which means the distance between projectile and throw origin at any time of its flight.

 =
(, )

2 + 2

We want to know that when we throw a projectile with same initial launch angels, but different launch angels, will it always and steadily moves away from us or it will oscillates in the radial direction?

Mathematics show us that for some launch angels, projectile steadily moves away and for some other, it oscillates in the radial direction.

 = 0

2 2 20 cos2 0

= /

2 + 2

2 = (0 20 )/

This behavior begins at a critical angel at:

~
And continues for all projectiles launched with angels between c and 90.

0 90

A plot of r as a function of time (t) shows the same behavior.

= 0 0

1 2 = 0 0 2 = 2 + 2
1 2 = 0 0 0 + 2 2 4

The Critical Angel

=
(

For small angels, the solutions are not real meaning that the projectile steadily moves away form the origin cause: =

( ) = .

The Return Ellipse

+ =
2 0 2 2 0 ( ) 2

0
2 0 -( ) 2

The Return Ellipse

The Route of Projectiles Motion

=

The Return Ellipse

Between these two points, the projectile is moving closer to the origin:

<

The Route of Projectiles Motion The Return Ellipse

The Single Point:

Conclusion
1- Ask one person to shoot a basketball while a second person videotapes the ball from a vantage point looking over the first persons shoulder. The diameter of the ball can be measured frame by frame, and then plotted. Alternatively, videotape the balls flight at right angels to its plane of motion. In this case, the distance from the launch site to the ball, can be measured directly on each frame.

2- Finally, it may be possible to detect radial oscillation using the Doppler effect. Throw a ball that produces a tone and listen for the frequency to fall, rise, and fall again. The effect may be too small to detect with the human ear, but this and the previous suggestions could make for interesting undergraduate experiments.