Projectile Motion with Air Resistance
A Case Study in Computer Analysis
In our study of projectile motion, we assumed that air-resistance effects are negligibly
small. But in fact air resistance (often called air drag, or simply drag) has a
major effect on the motion of many objects, including tennis balls, bicycle riders,
and airplanes. In Section 5.3 we considered how a fluid resistance force affected
a body falling straight down. We’d now like to extend this analysis to a projectile
moving in a plane.