Going Ballistic: Bullet Trajectories

Authors

Amanda Wade, University of South Florida

Publication Year

2011

Abstract

This project seeks to answer at what angle does a gun marksman have to aim in order to hit the center of a target one meter off the ground and 1000 meters away? We begin by modeling the bullet's trajectory using Euler's method with the help of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet solver, and then systematically search for the angle corresponding to the center of the target. It was found that a marksman shooting a target 1000 meters away and 1 meter off the ground has to aim the rifle 0.436° above horizontal to hit the center.

Recommended Citation

Wade, Amanda (2011) "Going Ballistic: Bullet Trajectories," American Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 5.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2326-3652.4.1.5
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/ujmm/vol4/iss1/5

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.