Ed Packel

Volwiler Professor of Mathematics
Lake Forest College, Ilinois
3:30pm Monday December 1st, 2003, in K9509

Projectile Motion with Resistance, Experimental Mathematics, and the Lambert W Function

Abstract

A new closed-form solution to the range formula for projectile motion with linear resistance will be developed with the help of symbolic computation and the increasingly applicable Lambert W function. Using a newly developed limit theorem for a class of inverse functions, the inverse range problem of finding angles that result in a given projectile range can also be solved in closed form.

Issues involving "Experimental Mathematics" and the role of computer algebra systems in doing mathematics will also be discussed.