Lab 1 Exercise

Date: F2016

Name:

Student ID#:

1. Imagine you have to launch a projectile to reach a target R distance away as depicted in
Fig. 1 below, you have to first determine the initial launching velocity v and the
projection angle before firing it off the launch pad.

Fig. 1 Projectile trajectory

As an Engineering Officer, you are required to write a projectile trajectory calculator in

LabVIEW to calculate the required initial launching velocity v [m/s] and the required
projection angle [degrees] in order for the projectile to reach the target R [m]
distance away. By manually tuning both v and , you should be able to determine the
estimated launching range REst. If REst is within the range of R, then the Fire indicator
light will light up and you are ready to fire the projectile.
The estimated launching range REst , measured in meters, can be calculated by:

2 (2)

(1)

where g is the acceleration due to gravity ( 9.8 m/s2). And the time tEst it takes for the
projectile to reach the target R distance away, measured in seconds, can be calculated
by:

2()

(2)

Lab 1 Exercise

Date: F2016

In LabVIEW, the angle you input for the trigonometry function (e.g. sine) has to be
converted to radian first. Such conversion can be done with the equation below
(Assume = 3.14):

[] =

[]
180

a) Construct the Front Panel according to the GUI illustrated in Fig. 2

Fig. 2 GUI of the projectile trajectory calculator

(3)

Lab 1 Exercise

Date: F2016

b) Construct the Block Diagram according to Fig. 3. The blocks can be found on
Blackboard (Course Content/Laboratory Materials/Lab1 Exercise
1b/Lab1Ex_b.vi). For the Est Time [s] block, try to follow the equation input
format of the Est Range [m] block to input the equation for tEst (Eq. (2) on page
1).

Fig. 3 Block Diagram of the projectile trajectory calculator

c) Run the vi file and determine the initial velocity and the projection angle for a
projectile to reach a target 60 meters away. How much time it takes for the
projectile to reach target?