“Optimization of projectile motion under linear air resistance,” co-authored by Professor of Mathematics Robert Kantrowitz ’82, is included in the December issue of the international journal Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo.
The paper, written with Michael M. Neumann of Mississippi State University, addressed the problem of maximizing the horizontal range of a projectile that is launched from a tower and is subject only to gravity and linear air resistance.
According to Kantrowitz, “The surface to which the projectile is launched is modeled by a continuous function whose intersection with every flight path is a single point. In this setting, real analysis is employed to gain information about the optimal launch angle and geometric aspects of the corresponding flight path.”
