Software development for prediction of projectile's flight path

• Main Author: Ng, Melvin Yong Cai
• Other Authors: Seah Leong Keey
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Mechanics and dynamics; DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Software::Programming languages; DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Mathematics of computing::Numerical analysis
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/74418
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Like most investigations involving fatal fall from height i.e. suicide, the authorities are heavily reliant on on-site witness account to established a motive or cause of the fall and time is needed for the authorities to gather evidence especially if homicide is involved. Using the law of physics involving falling objects and objects thrown at an angle, the objective of this project is to create a user-friendly program to aid the authorities, forensics in particular, The program is tasked to do two things. First, predicting the human’s trajectory when falling off a building, which is influenced by relative height of the building, initial velocity, the launch angle, the human’s weight and height. Second, predicting and narrowing down the launch height of the building based on the initial launch velocity, launch angle and the actual range of the body from the building. By using a reference table as guide, the program generates an ever-changing table based on the person’s mass and height, at pre-defined movement speed values like walking, running and jumping to compare the horizontal distance of the body from the building tabulated with the ones in the reference table. The table will then show the possible floors that the person may have fall off from. The program’s purpose is to help reduce the time taken in the investigation, gathering the necessary evidence and establishing a motive behind the fall.