To know how far a wiffleball will travel we must break down the inital
velocity into a horizontal and vertical component.
V=Total velocity
A=Inital Angle of flight
t=time
g=-9.8(m/s^2)
The horizontal component is given by v_x_inti= VcosA. And the vertical
component is v_y_inti= VsinA.
The modeling of the horizontal component can be given with
X=(X_inti)+VcosAt. The vertical component's equation is
Y=(Y_inti)+VsinAt+(gt^2)/2.
Remember, these equations are assuming that there is no air
resistance. The approximite equation for the drag of an object is
-bV^2. Where b is the drag coefficient. Leaving out some boring calculations,
we can find the drag components as -(Vx/V)bV^2 and -(Vy/V)bV^2.
As you can see the drag has a large effect on a wiffleball. Much
more than a baseball. This is due to a small mass.
I am still working on find the wiffleballs drag coefficient. More
to come...
