Thread: [SOLVED] calculating velocity

I would like to say first off I love math, I am a 45 year old frame carpenter who uses all kinds of math during work. I believe that all things are based on math, science, and physics, but this site has me lost, I never realized how much math was out there.

On to my question. How would you calculate the force needed to throw an object ( Say a shoe ) in a straight line and also if the (Shoe) was thrown and had to strike another object to deflect its course to reach it destination (In otherwords the (Shoe) could not had reached it's destination without first striking another object to change its course) I know that an object will lose momentum after striking another object and the amount of lost momentum depends on the angle of the object it struck.

Sounds dumb I know, but I like to learn how to do something new every day, it's a wasted day for me if I do not learn something. Life is learning, and learning is life. Thanks for any help

Originally Posted by Bill

I would like to say first off I love math, I am a 45 year old frame carpenter who uses all kinds of math during work. I believe that all things are based on math, science, and physics, but this site has me lost, I never realized how much math was out there.

On to my question. How would you calculate the force needed to throw an object ( Say a shoe ) in a straight line and also if the (Shoe) was thrown and had to strike another object to deflect its course to reach it destination (In otherwords the (Shoe) could not had reached it's destination without first striking another object to change its course) I know that an object will lose momentum after striking another object and the amount of lost momentum depends on the angle of the object it struck.

Sounds dumb I know, but I like to learn how to do something new every day, it's a wasted day for me if I do not learn something. Life is learning, and learning is life. Thanks for any help

I would like to mention, nothing travels in a straight line.
Everything is a paraboloid shape. Even light travels in a paraboloid shape. However, since light is so fast it appears it is a straight line.

I can provide a formula that tells the position of an object (its vertical height and horizontal distance traveled) which you can use to analyze ballistics. You however need to be familiar with parametric equations, know that?

Originally Posted by ThePerfectHacker

I would like to mention, nothing travels in a straight line.
Everything is a paraboloid shape. Even light travels in a paraboloid shape. However, since light is so fast it appears it is a straight line.

I can provide a formula that tells the position of an object (its vertical height and horizontal distance traveled) which you can use to analyze ballistics. You however need to be familiar with parametric equations, know that?

In Newtonian mechanics objects travel in straight lines unless acted upon
by a force. At the Earth's surface where there is an approximately constant
gravitational field, the trajectory of a projectile is (as a result of the
gravitational force) parabolic.

In General Relativity light travels along geodesics which are the shortest
paths in the geometry induced by the mass distribution in the universe
between two points. Geodesics play the part of straight lines in the
geometry.

RonL