Blog Entry (c) Thursday, November 21, 2024, by James Pate Williams, Jr. Comparison of Homegrown Fifth Order Runge-Kutta Method Versus a Limited Number of Predictor-Corrector Algorithm

The first table is based on Conte-de Boor Fourth Runge-Kutta formulas that I converted to Fifth Order Runge-Kutta. Initial values: V = 2600 feet per second angle of elevation 30 degrees diameter 16 inches coefficient of form 0.61 density ratio 1.00 are from LCDR Ernest Edward Herrmann’s Exterior ballistics, 1935 My results are given first then LCDR Herrmann’s results:

x deg min sec time v vx vy y
0 30 0 0 0.00 2600 2252 1300 0
563 29 50 45 0.25 2578 2236 1283 325
1122 29 41 24 0.50 2556 2221 1266 646
1677 29 31 57 0.75 2535 2206 1250 962
2229 29 22 25 1.00 2515 2191 1233 1275
2776 29 12 47 1.25 2494 2177 1217 1583
3321 29 3 4 1.50 2474 2163 1201 1887
3861 28 53 15 1.75 2455 2149 1186 2188
x deg min sec time v vx vy y
0 30 0 0 0.00 2600 2252 1300 0
561 29 50 7 0.25 2582 2259 1285 323
1120 29 41 4 0.50 2564 2227 1270 642
1675 29 32 2 0.75 2546 2216 1255 958
2228 29 22 5 1.00 2529 2204 1241 1270

It is amazing how accurate Herrmann’s results were based on only a couple iterations using the Mayevski seven zone velocity retardation formulas.

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Author: jamespatewilliamsjr

My whole legal name is James Pate Williams, Jr. I was born in LaGrange, Georgia approximately 70 years ago. I barely graduated from LaGrange High School with low marks in June 1971. Later in June 1979, I graduated from LaGrange College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry with a little over a 3 out 4 Grade Point Average (GPA). In the Spring Quarter of 1978, I taught myself how to program a Texas Instruments desktop programmable calculator and in the Summer Quarter of 1978 I taught myself Dayton BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) on LaGrange College's Data General Eclipse minicomputer. I took courses in BASIC in the Fall Quarter of 1978 and FORTRAN IV (Formula Translator IV) in the Winter Quarter of 1979. Professor Kenneth Cooper, a genius poly-scientist taught me a course in the Intel 8085 microprocessor architecture and assembly and machine language. We would hand assemble our programs and insert the resulting machine code into our crude wooden box computer which was designed and built by Professor Cooper. From 1990 to 1994 I earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from LaGrange College. I had a 4 out of 4 GPA in the period 1990 to 1994. I took courses in C, COBOL, and Pascal during my BS work. After graduating from LaGrange College a second time in May 1994, I taught myself C++. In December 1995, I started using the Internet and taught myself client-server programming. I created a website in 1997 which had C and C# implementations of algorithms from the "Handbook of Applied Cryptography" by Alfred J. Menezes, et. al., and some other cryptography and number theory textbooks and treatises.

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