Software development for prediction of projectiles' flight path

• Main Author: Chu, Chor Kiat
• Other Authors: Seah Leong Keey
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77397
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

For every case of fatal fall, the authorities need to conduct extensive investigations to determine the nature of the fall. Fatal falls from height can be caused by an accident, suicide or homicide. If the nature of the fatal fall is inclined towards a homicide case, it is only right for the authorities to gather as much supporting evidences as possible within the shortest period of time, to apprehend the perpetrator. The flight path of a falling human is highly related to the subject of projectile motion which is frequently used in physics. A user-friendly software program is created to provide fast predictions of possible heights that the person may have fallen from. The software program performs two major functions. First of all, it calculates and predicts a list of possible heights that a person may fall from a building based on the person’s mass, height and gender, and the horizontal distance between the building and point of impact. Next, it shortlists the possible heights of homicides cases. With the use of analytical and numerical methods, the program generates 14560 intermediate results for each set of inputs. The intermediate results are then compared with the inputs, where results with approximate matches to the inputs are accepted and displayed in the program. The list of heights for probable homicide cases are also presented. Simple experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of the prediction by the software program. The results show that the program has an accuracy level of 65 to 68.2%, after some adjustments. Further studies on devising better approximate analytical formulae such as the projected area and location of centre of mass of body can be investigated to improve the accuracy of the program. The program can also be constantly updated with new real fatal falls data.