Illustration of the

Newton’s Cannonball
Problem

1. Shubham Saha-2019MEM2847
Course: Analytical Dynamics. 2. Basharat Mubashir Ahmed-2019MEM2776
 Understanding the Newton’s Cannonball Problem

1. Newton visualized a canon on top of a very high mountain. In the absence of any gravitational forces or air resistance, the
Cannonball should follow a straight line away from the Earth in the direction of its firing. However, in the presence of
Gravitational forces, it will follow a path depending on the initial firing velocity.
2. The experiment illustrates that the force of gravity is universal and is the key force for planetary motions
 Different case of the Cannonball problem with varying firing velocities:

1. For initial firing speed of zero, the cannonball will simply fall back on Earth

2. For low firing speeds, it will fall at some further distance, for example
 3. If the firing speed is the orbital speed at the altitude , it will go on circling around the Earth along a fixed circular
orbit, just like the Moon. For example horizontal speed of at approximately 7,300 m/s for Earth
𝑣𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙 = 𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙

4. For speed of firing higher than the orbital velocity, but lower than the escape velocity, it will continue revolving
around Earth along an elliptical orbit. For example horizontal speed of 7,300 to approximately 10,000 m/s for Earth
5. For very high speeds(at exactly escape velocity) , it will leave Earth in a parabolic or hyperbolic trajectory. For
example horizontal speed of approximately greater than 10,000 m/s for Earth.
𝑣𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙 = 𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 for parabolic
𝑣𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙 > 𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 {for hyperbolic}
Illustration for the trajectory of the particle for various firing speeds.
Governing equations of motion for the problem:

¨ 𝐺𝑀𝑥
𝑥=− 3
(𝑥 2 + 2
𝑦 )2

¨ 𝐺𝑀𝑦
𝑦=− 3
(𝑥 2 + 2
𝑦 )2

Boundary conditions :

𝐴𝑡 𝑡 = 0:
𝑥𝑜 = 0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥𝑜ሶ = vo
𝑦𝑜 = 𝑅 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦ሶ𝑜 = 0
 𝑚𝑣 2 𝐺𝑀𝑚
Centripetal force 𝐹𝑐 = 𝑅𝑒 +ℎ
: Gravitational force 𝐹𝑔 = 𝑅
𝑒 +ℎ
2
𝑚𝑣 𝐺𝑀𝑚
=
𝑅𝑒 + ℎ 𝑅𝑒 + ℎ

𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 = √𝑔 𝑅𝑒 + ℎ
𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 = √2𝑔 𝑅𝑒 + ℎ
𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 = √2vorbital
 Brief introduction to ODE-45

• 𝑡, 𝑦 = 𝑜𝑑𝑒45 𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑛, 𝑡𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑛, 𝑦0 , 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑛 = 𝑡0, 𝑡𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑦 ′ =
𝑓 𝑡, 𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡0 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑦0
• Each row in the solution array y corresponds to a value returned in column vector t
• All MATLAB ODE solvers can solve systems of equations of the form 𝑦 ′ = 𝑓(𝑡, 𝑦) and the ODE 45 is a versatile solver and
the first to be tried to solve most of the problems
• This function implements a Runge-Kutta method with a variable time step for efficient computation