Football Throw Trajectory Calculator

This is a Javascript program that calculates the trajectory and distance of a football throw, not considering air resistance or relativistic effects, in the gravitational field around various planets and asteroids, and compares the result to the approximation of a constant graviational field. I got the idea for writing this program from a The Collapsed Wavefunction blog entry. The starting value for the initial velocity comes from the value quoted by the blog entry for the speed that a typical pro football player can throw at. For two of the bodies included, Phobos and Deimos, this is above the escape velocity.

If you want to calculate the trajectory for a planet not on the list, select "Other" and enter its mass and radius in the fields below.

Initial velocity (m/s):
Angle above horizontal (degrees):
Planet:
Planet Mass (x Earth Mass):
Planet Radius (x Earth Radius):
  • Acceleration of gravity at surface: m/s2
  • Planet density: kg/m3
  • Distance in uniform gravitational field: m
  • Maximum height in uniform field: m
  • Distance in 1/r field: m
  • Maximum height in 1/r field: m
  • Time of flight: s
  • Escape velocity: m/s
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