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Catapult: Using Computers To Do Solve Seemingly Simple Problems
Catapult: Using Computers To Do Solve Seemingly Simple Problems
Catapult: Using Computers To Do Solve Seemingly Simple Problems
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http://www.lcse.umn.edu/specs/labs/catapult/index.html
10/9/2011
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R = (25 m/s)2 sin(2*30o) / (9.8 m/s2) = 55 m So you can throw a baseball about 55 meters (about helf the length of a football field). Keep in mind, it is not critical you memorize this equation, just notice how simple it is to use. However, our simple assumption that gravity is the only force acting on the projectile is incorrect, at least in the real world. On earth, air resistance plays a significant role in the distance a projectile will travel. And to make matters worse, in general air resistance depends on the speed of the object, so the air resistance will decrease if the speed decreases and will increase if the speed increases. To solve the problem of the projectile with air resistance, you have to compute the speed of the projectile at many instants through its motion to make sure you compute the air resistance accurately for the entire flight. In this simulation you will be shooting a payload to a specific point down range. At first you will looking at how this problem will be solved neglecting air resistance. You will see that this is not a very difficult problem to solve. Then you will add in air resistance to the problem, which increases the number of calculations greatly, and you'll see how inaccurate the simple equation above (which neglected air resistance) can be. Using the Computer to Solve a Projectile Problem First, follow this link to practice using a computer to compute the trajectory of a projectile, both including and neglecting air resistance. Once you are done practicing, you should attempt to solve this realistic projectile problem. It is an example of a problem that is easily done by a computer because of the computer's speed. Conclusion Keep in mind this problem would not be easily solvable without a computer, but becomes fairly trival with one. Also keep in mind that the problem could get even more complex. We haven't even considered
z z
The effects of wind on the projectile For extremely long projectile motions (on the order of several kilometers), you have to take into account the Coriolis effect when figuring out the flight path Depending on the shape of the object, if it tumbles in flight, its air resistance will change in flight.
The point is that real world projectile problems can become very complex and require a huge number of computations. However, they are tractable with computers. This is all because of the computer's main advantage over humans, it is very quick at making repeated calculations. This does not mean the computer is smarter than a human, it is simply faster. Remember that it was a human that told the computer what to do (this is called programming). The computer alone would not have known what to do to solve the problem. But once the computer has been programmed, it is able to a lot of calculations quickly to help us solve our projectile problem in a reasonable amount of time. Go back to the SpECS Homepage Educator's Notes/Notes For Those Wanting All The Details Don't read this unless you want to know a lot more about how the Cannon Applet works.
http://www.lcse.umn.edu/specs/labs/catapult/index.html
10/9/2011
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The Applet uses an iterative routine to figure out the trajectory of a projectile. The routine is as follows: 1) Get the position (x, y) and velocity (vx, vy) of the projectile. 2) Compute the acceleration on the object in each direction using the equations: ax = Fx/m = -bvx2/m ay = Fy/m = (mg - bvy2)/m
where b is the coefficent of drag. In our applet, the coefficent of drag is computed on the fly, using the terminal velocity, vterm, set by the user. Since the terminal velocity is defined as the velocity where the gravitational force is exactly balanced by the air resistance, so that ay = 0 and thus: ax = 0 = mg -bvterm2 therefore the drag coefficient is b = mg/vterm2 NOTE: For simplicity, we assume a projectile mass of 5 kilos during the calculation. However, it really doesn't matter because we compute the acceleration only, so we divide drag coefficent by the mass during the computation, taking the effect of mass out of the equation. 3) Once we compute the force, we take a time step (dt) of 0.01 seconds (by default, this value can be changed by the user) and compute the distance the projectile travels (dx and dy) in that time using the equations: dx = vx(dt) + ax(dt)2 dy = vy(dt) + ay(dt)2
NOTE: These are differential equations and therefore there is no (1/2) in front of the acceleration component of these equations, you can view the equations as having the form (v + a(dt))*(dt), which is the true form of the equation before simplification. 4) The program now computes the new instantaneous velocity of the projectile using the equations: vx = dx/dt vy = dy/dt
5) Check to make sure we haven't hit the ground yet, if not, go back to step 1, otherwise print out the total range and stop computing. Go back to the SpECS Homepage
http://www.lcse.umn.edu/specs/labs/catapult/index.html
10/9/2011