Question

Hello, I am trying to use python to calculate the terminal velocity of an object falling from a height of 3 meters. I have gotten stuck trying to actually calculate the terminal velocity.

thanks for the help!

Here I have posted the code I have so far.

from visual import*

myscene = display(range = 10, width = 600, heigth = 600, background = color.blue, title = 'lab 5' ) #display window

s = vector(0,3,0) #vector for starting position

m = 1.2 #mass of object

d = .5 #drag coefficient

a = .3166 #area of object

g = vector(0,-9.8,0) #vector for gravity and acceleration

r = 1.2 #resistance of air

dt = .001

v = vector(0,0,0) #starting velocity of object

mybox = box(pos = s, height = 2, width = 5, length = 1, color = color.red) #create object

while s.y > 0.0: #while loop to free fall object
    rate(1000)

  
    v = v + g * dt #increasing velocity with acceleration

    s = s + v * dt #position from velocity

    mybox.pos = s #update position

  
    vt = math.sqrt( (2*m*g) / (r*a*d) ) #calculate terminal velocity

print (vt) #display terminal velocity

Answer 1

Terminal velocity formula is

v = the square root of ((2*m*g)/(rho*A*C)).

• m = mass of the falling object
• g = the acceleration due to gravity. On Earth this is approximately 9.8 meters per second per second.
• rho = the density of the fluid the object is falling through.
• A = the projected area of the object. This means the area of the object if you projected it onto a plane that was perpendicular to the direction the object is moving.
• C = the drag coefficient. This number depends on the shape of the object. The more streamlined the shape, the lower the coefficient. You can look up some approximate drag coefficients here

s = vector(0,3,0) #vector for starting position

m = 1.2 #mass of object

c = .5 #drag coefficient

a = .3166 #area of object

g = vector(0,-9.8,0) #vector for gravity and acceleration

rho = 1.2 #resistance of air

dt = .001

v = vector(0,0,0) #starting velocity of object

mybox = box(pos = s, height = 2, width = 5, length = 1, color = color.red) #create object

while s.y > 0.0: #while loop to free fall object
    rate(1000)

  
    v = v + g * dt #increasing velocity with acceleration

    s = s + v * dt #position from velocity

    mybox.pos = s #update position

  
    vt = math.sqrt( (2*m*g) / (rho*a*c) ) #calculate terminal velocity

print (vt) #display terminal velocity