Simulatig Air Drag on a cannon ball

[someguyonthenet]

I am working on a project for school. I created a trebuchet but the ball goes way to far. I believe it is beacse there is no air friction. I have spent days trying to figure this out. Is there anyway in inventor pro to apply air friction on something like a cannon ball?

[henderh]

This is not possible with Dynamic Simulation "out of the box".

There may be a way to do it by applying a Force and using the input grapher with the drag force equation: 

It would be fairly straightforward if the velocity was only in one direction.  With a parabolic trajectory, you'd probably need to apply the drag force using in two seperate external loads, that apply the horizontal and vertical components.

Hope this helps...

[mcgyvr]

Did you forget gravity? There are a 4 or 5 part video series showing exactly how to setup Inventor dynamic simulation with a trebuchet.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=504xOZcfcbM

[someguyonthenet]

Thanks for the reply. Ya, I have seen the video out there with the trbuchet. I do have gravity, the curve looks good but just is too long because there is no air resistance.