Flight Equations with Drag (no thrust - constant mass)

No input data. - 6 p.The study of the flight of a baseball and the "bend" of a soccer kick are excellent ways for students to learn the basics of forces and the response of an object to external forces. A ball in flight has no engine to produce thrust, so the resulting flight is similar to the flight of shell from a cannon, or a bullet from a gun. This type of flight is called ballistic flight and assumes that weight is the only force acting on the ball. In reality, a baseball or a soccer ball in flight generates a moderate amount of aerodynamic drag and is not strictly ballistic. On this page we develop the equations which describe the motion of a flying ball including the effects of drag.