Calculus Project: Position eq with Theta

[seansss]

Hey all I am trying to do a calculus project that deals with the flight of an arrow. At first glance I thought I would be using the eq s(t)=-16t^2+VT+S...V being the initial velocity, S initial height, and T for time. I quickly figured out that I needed to have a theta in there some where to account for the launch angle. Any help would be appreciated thanks.


sean

 

[mathman]

Hey all I am trying to do a calculus project that deals with the flight of an arrow. At first glance I thought I would be using the eq s(t)=-16t^2+VT+S...V being the initial velocity, S initial height, and T for time. I quickly figured out that I needed to have a theta in there some where to account for the launch angle. Any help would be appreciated thanks.


sean

Strictly speaking you have 2 equations, since V is a vector quantity.

h(t)=-16t^2+ut+s and p(t)=wt, where u is the vertical component of the initial velocity and w is the horizontal. s is the initial height, while the starting horizontal is 0. h(t) and p(t) are the height and position in time. In reality you should take into account air resistance, but that is a much harder problem.