Gabriel the Grenadier wants to lob a grenade over a huge barrier in front of him. He models the scenario in the following way:
The grenade is a point mass that is thrown with a variable velocity , at a variable angle . The barrier is a cylinder with a radius of .
Find the minimum value of (in m/s) for which the particle crosses the log.
Details and assumptions
Neglect air resistance and viscosity.
Take
.
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When, we throw the particle with minimum required velocity, it touches the cylinder at two points. Let us say the line joining center of cylinder and particle makes an angle ϕ with horizontal, and at this time speed is v . Clearly, height scaled is h = R ( 1 + sin ϕ ) .
Using conservation of energy,
v 2 = u 2 − 2 g h = u 2 − 2 g R ( 1 + sin ϕ )
Now, the range of particle if it is thrown from this point with speed v is :
x = g v 2 sin 2 ( 2 π − ϕ ) = g ( u 2 − 2 g R ( 1 + sin ϕ ) ) sin 2 ϕ
Now, this should be same as 2 R cos ϕ . as the distance between two points where particle touches cylinder is 2 R cos ϕ
Hence, g ( u 2 − 2 g R ( 1 + sin ϕ ) ) sin 2 ϕ = 2 R cos ϕ
⇒ u 2 = g R ( 2 + 2 sin ϕ + sin ϕ 1 ) ≥ 2 g R ( 1 + 2 ) ( AM-GM)
Thus , u ≥ 9 . 7 2 8 m / s