Physics 430: Lecture 4

Quadratic Air Resistance

Dale E. Gary
NJIT Physics Department

Linear Air Resistance Recap1

When a projectile moves through the air (or other mediumsuch

as gas or liquid), it experiences a drag force, which depends on

velocity and acts in the direction opposite the motion (i.e. it
always acts to slow the projectile).
f f (v) v
Quite generally, we can write this force as
, where the
function f(v) can in general be any function of velocity.
At relatively slow speeds, it is often
f (v) bv cv 2 f lin a good
f quad approximation to write
2
where flin and fquad stand
and
terms,
f lin bvfor the
andlinearf quad
cvquadratic
respectively:
mr mg bv
mv mg bv
mv x equation
bv x
For linear air resistance, the
of motion is
or in
v y mg bvdifferential
terms of velocity, it is amfirst-order
y
v y
v x
b equations:
b
equation
, which has component
;

vx
m
v y vter
m
mg
vter
b
Equations of
this form can be written:
September 10, 2009
where
is the terminal velocity.

Linear Air Resistance Recap2

Such equations are said to be in separable form (terms involving v

on one side, and no dependence on v on the other side). Solutions

dv y
of this particular form,
dv x e.g.b
b
dt ;
dt
vx
m
v y vter
m
have exponential solutions:
v x v xo e t / v y v yo e t / vter (1 e t / )
m / b
which we then integrate to get x and y positions:
t /
x(t ) x 1 e t / y (t ) vter t v yo vter (1 e )
We can then combine these equations by eliminating t, to get a
v yo vter
single equation for the trajectory:

y
x vter ln 1
v xo
v xo

Finally, we solved this for the range R, i.e. the value of x for which
y = 0, valid for low air resistance:
4 v yo

R Rvac 1
3
v
ter

Linear air resistance applies only to tiny projectiles or viscous

fluids.

September 10, 2009

2.4 Quadratic Air Resistance

For more normal size projectiles (baseball, cannon ball), it is the

quadratic drag force that applies.
We are now going to follow exactly the same procedure, but starting
2
with the quadratic form of the fdrag
force:
quad cv
mv mg cv 2 v
The equation of motion (in terms of v) then becomes:
with component equations:
mv x cv 2 c v x2 v y2 v x
mv y mg cv 2 mg c v x2 v y2 v y
As we noted last time, these two equations are coupled, and are
generally not solvable analytically (in terms of equations), although
they can be solved numerically.
However, we can solve these equations for special cases of either
solely horizontal motion (vy = 0), or solely vertical motion (vx = 0), in
mv become
cv 2
[horizontal motion]
which case the equations
mv mg cv 2 [vertical motion]
Lets look at these one at a time.
September 10, 2009

Horizontal Motion with Quadratic

Drag-1
As before, we write the equation in separable form (move the terms
dv it isc trivial:
involving v to one side). For the horizontal equation,
dt
v2
m

This equation is called a non-linear differential equation because one

of the derivatives (the zeroth one, in this case) has a non-linear
dependence. Such equations are significantly harder to solve, in
v dvus to
general. In this case, however, the separable form allows
c t
vo v2 m 0 dt
integrate both sides directly
1 1
vo
ct

v(t )

1 t / , where I have introduced the
m or
to get vo v
m

cvo
characteristic time, , in terms of constants:
.

To find the position, we

again
integrate the velocity equation to get
t
v0
x(t ) xo
dt vo ln(1 t / ) [if xo 0]
0 1 t /
September 10, 2009

Horizontal Motion with Quadratic

Drag-2
The final solutions for v(t) and x(t) are:
vo
m / cvo
1 t /
x(t ) vo ln(1 t / )

v(t )

[for quadratic drag]

Graphs of these functions are:

x
vx
vo

t as
They may look similar at first to the linear case, but now the velocity
approaches zero much more slowly, like 1/t, so the position does not approa
some limiting value
x
like in the linear case, but rather continues to increa
forever. If this sounds impossible, you are right. What really happens is th
as the speed drops, quadratic drag gets swamped by linear drag.
September 10, 2009

Vertical Motion with Quadratic Drag

We now consider motion solely in the vertical direction, governed by
the equation of motion:
mv mg cv 2 [vertical motion]
Before we write the vertical equation in separated form, however,
we notice as before that the gravity force mg is balanced by the drag
force cvy2 at terminal velocity mg
vter
c
after whichv y 0 , i.e. the velocity becomes constant. In terms of vter,

the separated form for the vertical equation is:

dv
g dt
2
1 v 2 / vter
In this separated form, we can integrate both sides directly
v
t
dv
(assuming vo = 0).

g
0 1 v2 / vter2
0 dt
dx
1 x 2 arctanh x
Looking at the inside front cover of the book we find
which is what we have if we write x = v/vter. What the
heck10,
is 2009
arctanh?
September

Hyperbolic FunctionsProblem
2.33(a)
Statement of the Problem:

The hyperbolic functions cosh z and sinh z are defined as follows:

e z e z
e z e z
cosh z
and sinh z
2
2

for any z, real or complex. (a) Sketch the behavior of both functions over
a suitable range of real values of z.

cosh z
e z
2

sinh z
ez
2

1
1
2

ez
2
1
2

12

e
2

September 10, 2009

Hyperbolic FunctionsProblem
2.33(b)
Statement of the Problem, contd:

(b) Show that cosh z = cos(iz). What is the corresponding relation for sinh z?

Solution:

To do this part, you have to know the relations:

eix e ix
cos x
2

e ix e ix
and sin x
2i

Then the solution is very easy:

e i ( iz ) e i ( iz ) e z e z
cos iz

cosh z
2
2
e i ( iz ) e i ( iz ) e z e z
e z e z
sin iz

i
i sinh z
2i
2i
2

So

sinh z

sin iz
i sin iz
i

September 10, 2009

Hyperbolic FunctionsProblem
2.33(c)
Statement of the Problem, contd:

(c) What are the derivatives of cosh z and sinh z? What about their
integrals?

Solution:

The derivatives
d coshare:
z

d z
(e e z ) 12 (e z e z ) sinh z
dz
dz
d sinh z 1 d z
2 (e e z ) 12 (e z e z ) cosh z
dz
dz

1
2

The integrals are equally straightforward:

cosh z dz sinh z
sinh z dz cosh z

September 10, 2009

Hyperbolic FunctionsProblem
2.33(d)
Statement of the Problem, contd:

(d) Show that cosh2 z sinh2 z = 1.

Solution:

e z ez
2
Since cosh z
2

and

e z ez
2
sinh z
2

14 (e 2 z 2e z e z e 2 z ) 14 (e 2 z 2 e 2 z )

14 (e 2 z 2e z e z e 2 z ) 14 (e 2 z 2 e 2 z )

the difference is cosh 2 z sinh 2 z 12 12 1

September 10, 2009

Hyperbolic FunctionsProblem
2.33(e)
Statement of the Problem, contd:

(e) Show that

the

dx

1 x

arcsinh x . [Hint: One way to do this is to make

substitution x = sinh z.]

Solution:

Making that substitution,

we have dx
= cosh
cosh z dz
cosh
z dzz dz, so:

but

1 sinh z
2

cosh z sinh z sinh z

2

dz z

sinh z x z arcsinh x

so we have shown that

dx
1 x

arcsinh x

September 10, 2009

Vertical Motion with Quadratic Drag

sinh z
cosh z

Likewise, you can do Problem 2.34, which gives the definition:

tanh z

dx
and leads you through the steps needed to show
1 x 2 arctanh x
v
t
dv
Now back to our equation:

g
0 1 v2 / vter2
0 dt

v / v ter
dv
dx

v
ter
0 1 v 2 / v 2
0
1 x2
ter

The left side is

v / vter

vter arctanh x 0

v
vter

vter arctanh

gt
v(t ) vter tanh
while the right side is just gt, so solving for v, we get
vter
To get the position, integrate (see Prob. 2.34) to get 2

vter
y (t )
ln cosh
g

gt

vter

September 10, 2009

Example 2.5

A Baseball Dropped from a High Tower

Find the terminal speed of a baseball (diameter D = 7 cm , mass m = 0.15

kg). Make plots of its velocity and position for the first six seconds after
it is dropped from a tall tower.

Solution

Recall that the constant c can be written c = D2., where = 0.25 Ns2/m2.
So
mg
(0.15 kg)(9.8 m/s 2 )
vter

35 m/s
2
2
2
c
(0.25 Nm /s )(0.07 m)
which is nearly 80 mph.
You can sketch the velocity and position, or you can calculate it in
Matlab. Here are the plots. As expected, the velocity increases more
slowly than it would in a vacuum under gravity (dashed line), and
approaches vter = 35 m/s (dotted line). As a consequence, the position is
less than the parabolic dependence in vacuum.

September 10, 2009

Quadratic Drag with Horizontal

and Vertical Motion

As we said before, the general problem of combined horizontal

and vertical motion yields a set of coupled equations
mv x c v x2 v y2 v x

mv y mg c v x2 v 2y v y
where now we take y positive upward.
The projectile does not follow the same x and y equations we just
derived, because the drag in the x direction slows the projectile
and changes the drag in the y direction, and vice versa. In fact,
these equations cannot be solved analytically at all! The best
we can do is a numerical solution, but that requires specifying
initial conditions. That means we cannot find the general
solutionwe have to solve them numerically on a case-by-case
basis.
Lets take a look at one such numerical solution.
September 10, 2009

Example 2.6

Trajectory of a baseball

The baseball of the previous example is thrown with velocity 30 m/s

(about 70 mph) at 50o above the horizontal from a high cliff. Find its
trajectory for the first 8 s of flight and compare with the trajectory in a
vacuum. If the same baseball were thrown on the same trajectory on
horizontal ground, how far would it travel (i.e. what is its horizontal
range)?

Solution

First, what are the initial conditions for the position and velocity? For
the position, we are free to choose our coordinate system, so we
certainly would choose xo = 0 and yo = 0 at t = 0. For the velocity, the
statement of the problem gives the initial conditions vxo = vocos = 19.3
m/s, vyo = vosin = 23.0 m/s. mUsing
v x cthese
v x2 values,
v y2 v x we need to write a
program in Matlab that performs a numerical solution to the equations

mv y mg c v x2 v y2 v y

for the time range 0 < t < 8 s. We will use the routine ode45 (ode stands
for ordinary differential equation).

September 10, 2009

Example 2.6, contd

Solution, contd

First we have to write a function that will be called by ode45. The heart
of that routine is quite simple, just write expressions for the two
Vdot_x = -(c/m)*sqrt(v(1)^2+v(2)^2)*v(1);
equations:
Vdot_y = -g-(c/m)*sqrt(v(1)^2+v(2)^2)*v(2);
= [block 2]
Here, v is the velocity vector, so v(1) is the horizontal velocity vx and
v(2) is the vertical velocity vy. Before these equations will work, we
m = 0.15;
% Mass of baseball,
in kgm. Recall that c = D2.
have to define
the constants,
g, c, and
g = 9.8;
% Acceleration of gravity, in m/s
diam = 0.07;
% Diameter of baseball, in m
gamma = 0.25; % Coefficient of drag in air at STP, in Ns^2/m^2
c = gamma*diam^2;

= [block 1]

The last step is to name the function and indicate the inputs and
outputs. ODE45 specifies that the function must have two inputsthe
limits of the independent variable
(time
this case), and the array of
function
vdot =inquad_drag(t,v)

initial conditions (start velocity

in x and y in this case).
[block 1]
[block 2]

vdot = [vdot_x; vdot_y];

After saving
this function as quad_drag.m, we call ODE45 with
[T,V] = ode45('quad_drag',[0 8],[19.3; 23.0]);
September 10, 2009

Example 2.6, contd

Solution, contd

The arrays T and V that are returned are the times and x and y
velocities, but what we need is the trajectory, i.e. the x and y positions.
For those, we have to integrate the velocities. There is probably an
elegant way to do this in Matlab, but I wrote a simple (and rather
inaccurate) routine to do that, given the T and V arrays:
function y = int_yp(t,yp)
n = length(t);
y = yp;
y(1,:) = [0 0];
for i=1:n-1
dt = t(i+1)-t(i);
dy = yp(i,:)*dt;
y(i+1,:) = y(i,:)+dy;
end
y = y(1:n-1,:);

Save this as int_yp.m, and then call it by

pos = int_yp(T,V);

which returns the position array [pos(1,:) is x, pos(2,:) is y].

All that remains is to plot the trajectory ( i.e. pos(1,:) vs. pos(2,:) ).
plot(19.3*T,23.0*T-4.9*T.^2); % Plot vacuum case
hold on
plot(pos(:,1),pos(:,2),'color','red'); % Overplot quadratic drag case
hold off

September 10, 2009

Example 2.6, contd

Solution, contd

Here is the resulting plot (somewhat improved by labels).

Note that the range is about
60 m, much shorter than the
equivalent trajectory in a
vacuum.
Note also that the baseball
does not reach quite as high
as in a vacuum, and reaches
its peak earlier.
You will be given homework
problems in which I will ask
you to try your hand at such
numerical solutions and plotting.
I will help you learn these very
useful skills, or you can make
use of the Matlab helpers.

September 10, 2009

2.5 Motion of a Charge in a

Uniform Magnetic Field

You may recall from Physics 121 that the force on a charge moving
in a magnetic field is
F qv B
where q is the charge and B is the magnetic field strength. The
equation of motion then becomes
mv qv B

which is a first-order differential equation in v.

In this type of problem, we are often free to choose our coordinate
system so that the magnetic field is along one axis, say the z-axis:
B (0,0, B )
v (v x , v y , v z )
and the velocity can in general have any direction
.
Hence,
v B ( v y B , v x B , 0)
mv x qv y B
and the three components of the equation of motionmare:
v qv B
y

mv z 0
September 10, 2009

Motion of a Charge in a
Uniform Magnetic Field-2

This last equation simply says that the component of velocity along
B,
vz = const. Lets now focus on the other two components, and ignore
the motion along B. We can then consider the velocity as a twodimensional vector (vx, vy) = transverse velocity.
To simplify, we define the parameter
v x v y = qB/m:, so the equations of
motion become:
v v
y

We will take the opportunity provided by these two coupled

equations to introduce a solution based on complex numbers.
imaginary
As you should know, a complex number is a number
like z = x + iy,
part
where i is the square
root
=
v +of
iv 1. Let us define:
x

and then plot the value of as a vector in the

complex plane whose components are vx and vy.

+
x
=v

iv y

vy

real part
vx

September 10, 2009

Motion of a Charge in a
Uniform Magnetic Field-3

Next, we take the time derivative of :

v x iv y v y iv x i (vx iv y )
or

So the equation in terms of this new relation has the same form
we saw in the previous lecture for linear air resistance, with the
familiar solution
Ae it

The only difference is that this time the argument of the

exponential is imaginary, but it turns out that this makes a huge
difference.
Before we can discuss the solution in detail, however, we need to
introduce some properties of complex exponentials, which we will
do next time.

September 10, 2009