1

Trajectory of particle under a force: a computer demonstration

Abhijit Kar Gupta

Department of Physics, Panskura Banamali College

Panskura R.S., East Midnapore, West Bengal, India, Pin Code: 721152
e-mail: kg.abhi@gmail.com

Study of Classical Mechanics is a very important and elaborate part of physics curricula since
school level. Simply by applying Newton’s laws, we arrive at various scenarios. We can
enumerate the path of a particle when the nature of the force is known. The path of a projectile
under the constant force of gravity acting downwards, the orbit of a planet under the central
force of inverse square law nature are all know to us. The mathematical calculations are not
difficult and the students can find them in any text book of mechanics or basic physics. It will
be, however, interesting to obtain the trajectories by directly invoking the law of force and
initial conditions. Here I would like to present the FORTRAN programs for two problems
(projectile motion and nature of orbit of a particle under central force) with algorithmic steps
followed by the figures obtained from the numerical data. Hope, this will be a good
demonstration for graduate or advanced level school students who can write the programs on
their personal desktops and play around with them!
 2

Projectile Motion

Algorithm:

We consider acceleration due to gravity, ; mass, ; initial position of the particle:

. Initial angle of projection and initial velocity are given. The choice of time
interval can be any small value for good results. For example, we choose .
All the quantities are in arbitrary units.

 Components of forces:
 Components of initial velocity: ,
 Change in velocity components: ,
 New velocity components: ,
 Change in position coordinates: ,
 New position coordinates: ,

FORTRAN Program:
C Projectile Motion of a partile
C
open(1,file='proj.dat')
write(*,*)'Angle (in deg) and initial speed?'
read(*,*)theta,v0
dt=0.00001
g=980
theta=3.14/180*theta
fx=0
fy=-g
vx=v0*cos(theta)
vy=v0*sin(theta)
x=0
y=0
10 dvx=fx*dt
dvy=fy*dt
vx=vx+dvx
vy=vy+dvy
dx=vx*dt
dy=vy*dt
x=x+dx
y=y+dy
write(1,*)x,y
if(y.gt.0.0)go to 10
stop
end
 3

Path of a particle projected at an angle and with some velocity

 4

Motion under Central Force

Algorithm:

Central Force, and consider Newton’s 2nd law of motion: . We take ,

. Initial values for the velocity components, and and the time interval, are given.
The time interval is chosen very small in order to get good results. For example, we choose
. All the quantities are in arbitrary units.

 Components of Force: ,
 √
 Change in velocity components: ,
 New velocity components: ,
 New position coordinates: ,

FORTRAN Program:

C Motion under Central Force

C
open(1,file='planet.dat')
dt=0.00001
vx=0.0
vy=0.1
x=1.0
y=0.0
ncount=0
10 r2=x*x+y*y
r=sqrt(r2)
f=-1/r2
fx=x/r*f
fy=y/r*f
vx=vx+fx*dt
vy=vy+fy*dt
x=x+dt*vx
y=y+dt*vy
ncount=ncount+1
n=mod(ncount,1000)
if(n.eq.0)write(1,*)x,y !To collect every 1000th data
if(ncount.lt.1000000)go to 10
stop
end
 5

Path of a particle under Central Force

 6

Harmonic Oscillator

Algorithm:

Equation of motion: . We choose mass and the force constant a large

value.







FORTRAN Program:

C Harmonic Oscillator
C
open(1,file='harmonic.dat')
x=0.0
t=0
v=1.0
dt=0.000001
k=500000000
ncount=0
10 dv=-k*x*dt
v=v+dv
dx=v*dt
x=x+dx
t=t+dt
write(1,*)t,x
ncount=ncount+1
if(ncount.lt.1000)go to 10
stop
end
7