Full speed ahead
I had a great weekend. Friday night after class I went home and spent some time with my folks (get psyched for a fantastic “Stories by Dad D” tomorrow). I got a hair cut and then spent some time with my sister, a friend, and the Schenk crowd. It was a very social day. I loved it.
Sunday I went climbing with Mark and Irene then spent three and a half hours battling advanced dynamics with a team of students.
Let’s get our geek on!
The problem was such:
A person fires a bullet into the air at angle a and an initial velocity of i cos a + k sin a (the projectile is being shot south). Solve for the position of the projectile when it lands taking into consideration the influence of the angular acceleration of the Earth on the projectile. Disregard air resistance.
Diagram anyone?
Although a huge pain in the butt, I think we figured it out. What made it mildly interesting is that the distance of the particle from the center of the Earth is changing for the duration of its air time. So the angular acceleration has to be a function of the particle’s height.
Authored by: mike d.
