Author Archives: mathscinotes

Introduction I love to look for physical interpretations of various constants. Sometimes it is impossible to come up with an interpretation, but such is not the case for the ballistic coefficient. This morning I read a very solid piece of … Continue reading →

A projectile with a large ballistic coefficient is less affected by drag than a projectile with a smaller ballistic coefficient. We can use the the ballistic coefficient to compare the effect of drag on different projectiles. A 16-inch projectile goes so much farther than a rifle bullet because the drag on the 16-inch projectile is relatively small compared to its momentum. Ultimately, this is because mass increases by the cube of the projectile dimensions and drag increases by the square of the projectile dimensions. This means that larger projectiles tend to have higher ballistic coefficients and drag has less effect. Continue reading →

I have had several people ask me questions about the Pejsa ballistic model (previous post) and I thought it would be useful to include some additional posts on the topic. In this post, I will discuss how the formula and parameters were determined for the velocity versus range formula for the range of velocities from 1400 feet per second to 4000 feet per second (sorry about the use of US customary units). Continue reading →