Book Cover

Introduction to Scientific Programming
Computational Problem Solving Using:
Maple and C
Mathematica and C

Author:
Joseph L. Zachary
Online Resources:
Maple/C Version
Mathematica/C Version

Ballistic Trajectory Tutorial

In this tutorial you can experiment with ballistic trajectories as discussed in Chapter 7. The tutorial will help you to visualize the flight path, speed, and duration of projectiles fired at different initial angles and velocities.

Simulation

Click below

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and the simulation window will appear.

If you click on the Fire button, you will see the trajectory that is followed by a cannon ball fired at 50 meters/sec, at a 45 degree angle, with gravitational acceleration of 9.8 meters/sec/sec. The simulation runs in real time, which means that the amount of time that the simulated cannon ball spends in flight is roughly equal to the amount of time that a real cannon ball would spend in flight.

By adjusting the initial velocity, firing angle, and gravitational constant and clicking on "Fire" again, you can view other simulated trajectories and compare them to the original one.

Experiment with some trajectories to get a feel for how the three parameters affect the flight of the trajectory. You will probably want to make the simulation window larger so that you can see more trajectories.

Last modified 17Oct96.