Engineering >> Mechanical Engineering

Going Ballistic

by Amanda Wade

 

Submitted : Fall 2011


The Going Ballistic calculus project begs the question, at what angle from the horizontal does a gun marksman have to aim in order to hit the center of a target one meter off the ground and 1000 meters away, while taking into account the air resistance. The problem was solved using Euler's method of substituting physics equations into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and testing various angles in degrees through a guess and check process to find the appropriate approximation in order to hit the center of the target. It was found that a gun marksman shooting 1000 meters a way and 1 meter off the ground has to aim the rifle 0.436 degrees above the horizontal to hit the center of the target.


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Advisors :
Gerald Hefley, Mathematics and Statistics
Scott Campbell, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Suggested By :
Scott Campbell