Introduction

Projectile motion is the study of motion in which a projectile (usually a particle) has a projected path similar to a negative parabola. This report makes an attempt at a simple derivation of a model describing such motion, without considering confounding variables such as air resistance. Derivation of the model The starting point of the derivation of this model will be with the following assumption ! = Which states that the vertical acceleration of a projectile equals the magnitude of the Earth gravitational acceleration in the opposite direction. !" As it is known that = !" , the derivative of velocity with respect to time, it is logical that the velocity of the given system can be found by integrating the given expression of acceleration. Which is to say that ! = Given that at time t=0 the velocity of the system vy = 0, which yields ! = ! ! = ! = ! !" Again using the fact that !" , integrating the derived expression again yields = (! ) 1 = ! ! + 2 ! = + ! ! =

At time t=0 the displacement in y-direction also equals 0, which gives 1 = ! ! 2 The velocity in x-direction is assumed constant at = ! as the air resistance is neglected. Integrating this expression gets = !

In order to develop the initial velocity in terms of vertical and horizontal component, one must consider the following diagram. In this diagram, U represents the initial velocity along with its Uy horizontal and vertical components. The initial velocity can be represented through a U combination of the vertical and horizontal components using trigonometry. ! = cos ! = sin Ux Substituting these identities into the original equations yields = cos 1 = sin ! 2 In order to develop a function in terms of x, recall that = cos = cos Substituting this into the original equation of the y displacement ! 1 = sin cos 2 cos Which reduces to sin ! = ! cos 2 cos ! = tan ! ! 2 cos ! To solve for the displacement in the x-axis, like with other functions the equation must be solved for y=0.

Finding the Maximum displacement in x-axis Setting the equation equal to 0; tan ! = 0 2! cos ! tan = ! ! 2 cos ! ! = 2! cos ! tan 2! cos ! tan 2! sin cos = = ! As sin cos = ! sin 2 ! sin 2 = As the value of sin 2 1 sin 2 1 in order to maximize the value of x, one must maximize the value of sin 2. ! Solving sin 2 = 1 gives 2 = sin!! (1) 2 = ! ! Hence, = ! ! Which also seems intuitively correct as ! = 45 which is the value for which cos = sin Solving another problem Description: A projectile is fired at velocity 80 ms-1 and lasts in the air for 10 seconds, find the angle at which the projectile had been fired and the length which it travels in x-direction. As previously established, the non-zero displacement in the x-axis can be found by setting the following equation equal to zero. 1 = sin ! 2 Substituting for the appropriate values: 9.8 (10)! = 80 sin 10 2 49 sin = 0.659219 37.8 80

 Finding the displacement in x-axis can be done by finding the x-intercept, which does not equal zero. ! sin 2 = 80! sin(1.318438) = 632.376 9.8 Reducing to 3 significant figures: = 632 Hence the displacement in x-direction is 632 meters based on the derived equation. Comparing the results to a projectile motion calculator (http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/more_stuff/Applets/ProjectileMotion
/jarapplet.html

As can be seen from the image, the predicted result is more or less in accordance with this calculator. However there appears to be a limitation with this model. For any value fo which 1 ! > sin 2 The equation seems to yield only non-real solutions, which cannot be applied.

Assumptions made in the derivation of the model In order to derive a model as simple (perhaps even elegant) as this one, a number of assumptions had to be made. 1. Air resistance is negligible - Any air resistance was ignored in the development of this model and would likely have to be applied in a high-precision theory, this would also make the mathematics involved slightly more messy 2. The velocity in x-direction is assumed constant - This links to the fact that the air resistance is ignored. By assuming that the velocity in the x-axis is constant one gets the expression vx=ux which plays a crucial part in this model. 3. The force applied to the projectile makes no radical changes in magnitude or direction - If the force was assumed more unpredictable the path of the projectile would not assume the parabola structure and thus would render this model unreliable 4. The mass of the fired projectile is neglected or rather set to m=1 Applications of the model Not much need to be said about the possible applications of the model, it can be used to calculate trajectories and quantities relating to the path of a fired projectile. However that being said the model does have some limitations in its applications, for one it is a two dimensional diagram which does not take several key factors into account (see previous paragraph) so its application might be limited to low-accuracy results. The model could perhaps for example be used to calculate the trajectory of a fired bullet from a weapon. Final: Graph of a fired projectile using the equations derived An early graph of the model using Geogebra where f(x) = abs(ux-4.9x2)

Oscar Krantz