Open AccessThe differential equations of ballistics
Publication year - 1933
Publication title -
philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical or physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9258
pISSN - 0264-3952
DOI - 10.1098/rsta.1933.0008
Subject(s) - internal ballistics , ballistics , differential equation , mathematics , motion (physics) , equations of motion , mathematical analysis , work (physics) , linear differential equation , classical mechanics , physics , projectile , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
The differential equations arising in most branches of applied mathematics are linear equations of the second order. Internal ballistics, which is the dynamics of the motion of the shot in a gun, requires, except with the simplest assumptions, the discussion of non-linear differential equations of the first and second orders. The writer has shown in a previous paper* how such non-linear equations arise when the pressure-index a in the rate-of-burning equation differs from unity, although only the simplified case of non-resisted motion was there considered. It is proposed in the present investigation to examine some cases of resisted motion taking the pressure-index equal to unity, to give some extensions of the previous work, and to consider, so far as is possible, the nature and the solution of the types of differential equations which arise.