Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Projectile Motion of a baseball with wind resistance


This animation shows the projectile motion of a baseball with wind resistance.  The equation for wind resistance is represented by Fwind= -0.5CρAv^2.  C is the coefficient of performance, ρ represents the density of air, A represents the frontal area of the baseball and v represents the velocity of the wind.  Other forces acting on the baseball is shown by the equation Fgravity= -mg.  
The baseball has an initial velocity = {10m/s, 0, 10m/s}.  This means that the baseball has an initial velocity in both the positive x and z direction, but not in the y direction.  The forces opposing the baseball are wind and gravity which can be represented by the vector d = {Fwind, 0, Fgravity}.  These forces are both in the negative x and z direction, but not in the y direction.  This is not practical since wind does not only blow in one direction.  We can however set the opposition y force to 0 to better show how the baseball can be effected by the force of wind.  The wind opposes the velocity of the baseball, causing it to have a negative acceleration and changing direction of the baseball as you can see in the animation above.  

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