Projectile Motion Simulator

Welcome to the Projectile Motion Simulator, a program that utilizes physics to accomplish that most amusing of activities: blowing up gorillas with bananas. The goal of the program is to better understand the mathematics behind projectile motion by using an autonomous Excel workbook to predict the path of the banana.

To install Gorilla230.exe, please click here. Install to "C:\Program Files\Gorilla 2"

To view the Excel workbook, please click here.

If you do not have Excel, click here to install Excel File Viewer.

Tutorial

Note: To work without the CD, copy projectile_motion.xls from the CD root directory to your computer.

Key

( ) = Comment
{ } = Value entered into spreadsheet
" " = Value entered into game

After installing gorilla230 (hereafter Gorillas), run the game (or click here).

1. Press Play Normal Game
2. Set Wind Extremity to "0" and Building Height to "4"
3. Make sure that the Wind Gusts box is unchecked (The simulation does not take wind into account)
4. Click Next
5. Select the names and types of the two gorillas (at least one cannot be a bot)
6. Click Next

(The game begins)
7. Count the number of windows (horizontal) between the two gorillas (figure 1)


Figure 1

8. Open porjectile_motion_easy.xls
9. In the input tab, enter the number of windows from step 7 (Target Distance (Hor.) is automatically calculated) {37}
10. Also input how many windows the active (firing) gorilla is from the inactive gorilla (recipient), "+" is above and "-" is below {0}
11. Input the angle you desire to use

(On the right side of the spreadsheet notice Target Distance (Hor.), the Real Distance (Hor.), Difference), and FIRE? (Figure 2)


Figure 2

12. The Velocity should pop up in red right beneath the Angle
13. Consult the FIRE? cell, and if it displays YES, skip to step 15
14. If NO appears, keep entering different Angles until YES displays

(If the active gorilla is higher up than the inactive gorilla, it is better for the difference to be "+" than "-")
(To view the whole solution view Figure 3)


Figure 3

15. Input your desired Angle {45} and the Velocity {64} calculated in step 13 (or step 14 depending on whether it took more than one attempt to get YES to appear) into Gorillas 2
16. Press ENTER

(The active gorilla throws the banana and 90% of the time will score a direct hit) (Figure 4)
(To view the calculations for this, click on the Calculations tab in Excel)


Figure 4

All Credit for Gorillas 2 goes to the makers of that game (freeware). the automated Excel worksheet and this document were made by Andrew Riker during the 2004-2005 school year.