Given Angle, Initial Velocity, and Acceleration due to Gravity, plot parabolic trajectory for every

Jayla Faulkner

Jayla Faulkner

Answered question

2022-05-09

Given Angle, Initial Velocity, and Acceleration due to Gravity, plot parabolic trajectory for every x?
Given any Angle -> 0-90
Given any Initial Velocity -> 1-100
Given Acceleration due to Gravity -> 9.8
Plot every x,y coordinate (the parabolic trajectory) with cartesian coordinates and screen pixels (not time)
This should only be one equation as far as I can tell, a "y=" type equation, telling you the height in y coordinates based on the current x coordinate which is increasing by 1 as you plot across a computer screen.
I've come up with an equation that works for the angle 45, but doesn't seem to be entirely accurate for any other angle, I suspect it has something to do with the angle 45 having 1 solution and every other angle having 2 solutions (two different initial velocities land on the same spot), but I'm stumped beyond that.
y = y 0 ( x x 0 ) tan 1 2 9.8 v 0 2 x x 0 2 cos θ 2

Answer & Explanation

Timothy Mcclure

Timothy Mcclure

Beginner2022-05-10Added 15 answers

Starting as Pieter Geerkens, the equations of motion in 2-D a parabolic system:
x ( t ) = x 0 + v x t = x 0 + v 0 cos ( α ) t
and int the y axis:
y ( t ) = y 0 + v 0 sin ( α ) t + 1 2 g t 2
where g 9.8 is the gravitational acceleration.
Solvinf for t in the first equation as Pieter did:
t ( x ) = x x 0 v 0 cos ( α )
and then substituitint t ( x ) in y ( t )
y ( x ) = y ( t ( x ) ) = y 0 + v 0 sin ( α ) x x 0 v 0 cos ( α ) + 1 2 g ( x x 0 v 0 cos ( α ) ) 2
Then if your math is not good enoguh to do this algebraic manipulations you should study some of math to keep going. It's worth it.
junoonib89p4

junoonib89p4

Beginner2022-05-11Added 2 answers

First consider parametric equations for x and y as a function of t.
Now, for each x-value solve for t = ( x x 0 ) / ( v 0 cos ( θ ) )
Then solve for the corresponding y = y 0 + v 0 sin ( θ ) t 4.9 t 2

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