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Free Fall Motion Analysis on Earth and Moon

1. The document analyzes the motion of a freely falling body on Earth and the Moon using Euler's method, neglecting factors like air resistance. 2. The mathematical model describes the body as a point object with one-dimensional motion, and differential equations model its acceleration due to gravity and change in velocity and position over time. 3. The document presents the initial conditions, parameters, analytical solutions and plots the results of position versus time for Earth and Moon, observing that the object reaches a lower final speed on the Moon due to its lower acceleration of gravity.

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Dhruvesh Asnani
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10 views3 pages

Free Fall Motion Analysis on Earth and Moon

1. The document analyzes the motion of a freely falling body on Earth and the Moon using Euler's method, neglecting factors like air resistance. 2. The mathematical model describes the body as a point object with one-dimensional motion, and differential equations model its acceleration due to gravity and change in velocity and position over time. 3. The document presents the initial conditions, parameters, analytical solutions and plots the results of position versus time for Earth and Moon, observing that the object reaches a lower final speed on the Moon due to its lower acceleration of gravity.

Uploaded by

Dhruvesh Asnani
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Problem 1

1 Problem Description:
Here, we will analyse the motion of a freely falling body neglecting air resistance, buoyant
force due to air and variation of g with height. We obtain solutions computationally using
Euler’s method. We analyse the motion for Earth as well as for Moon.

2 Assumptions:
1. Body is a point object

2. Motion is one-dimensional

3. No air resistance

4. No buoyant force due to air

5. No variation in g with height

3 Mathematical Model:
3.1 Differential Equations:
Let origin O be a point on the ground and the positive direction of Y − axis be perpendic-
ular to the ground surface. The acceleration of the body is −g. So,

dv
= −g (1)
dt
and
dy
=v (2)
dt

3.2 Difference Equations:


The corresponding difference equations are:

vi+1 = vi − gdt (3)

yi+1 = yi + vi dt (4)

1
3.3 Initial Conditions:
In free fall, since the object is initially at rest,

v0 = v(0) = 0

and the initial height is some positive value h0 . So,

h(0) = h0

3.4 Other Parameters:


1. g = 9.8m/s2

2. h0 = 15m

4 Analytical Solution:
Solving Eqn.(1) with initial condition v(0) = 0, we get

v = −gt (5)

Solving Eqn.(2) with initial condition y(0) = h0 , we get

gt 2
y = h0 − (6)
2
These equations are for Earth. For Moon, we simply replace g by g/6.

5 Results:
Here are the plots we obtained:

Figure 1: On Earth

2
Figure 2: On Moon

6 Observations:
1. Since acceleration is constant, speed increase linearly with time. Also, displacement
v/s time graph is a parabola as y varies as t 2 .

2. For the same initial conditions, the final speed of the object at Moon is less than its
final speed at Earth as gmoon is less than gearth by a factor of 6.

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