PROJECTILE MOTION IN ANGRY BIRDS

A few days ago, I was sitting and watching my nephew play Angry Birds . It seemed so
easy, taking that bird in a slingshot as it soared above and landed on those fat, green pigs.
So many children these days are obsessed and play Angry Birds for hours at a stretch but
hardly none are aware of the math that goes behind it. Watching my nephew play Angry
birds, I realised the math and physics behind it - the projectile motion. With the perfect
speed and angle, it would be so easy to aim exactly at the part one wants and gain
maximum points. Thus, this is how my Math IA came to be.

In my IA, I will use formulas of Projectile motion to predict the perfect angle to release the
birds so as to aim exactly at a particular spot. Projectile is the effect on an object when
there is only one force acting on it, gravitational force. The shape during movement that
this object takes is known as Projectile motion and it usually takes a curved shape. For an
object moving upwards, there is a downwards force as well as a downward acceleration.
This motion of Projectile is seen is various real life scenarios such as Basketball throws,
missiles, bullets, rockets, sprinklers, etc. and it helps one determine the optimum value.
Maybe the optimum distance a bullet will go or the optimum maximum height a sprinkler
will reach, etc.

Projectile motion is a Newtonian concept seen very often in physics as it revolves around
laws of gravitational force. Here are a few formulas that are used often in Projectile
motion :

1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. v2 = vx2 + vy2

For my investigation, I will screenshot various shots of angry bird levels and find out the
optimum speed and angle for each trial. I will measure using a scale, directly on the screen
and a timer for the time. I will the following values :

1. Distance between launching bird and pig

2. Distance between ground and launching bird
3. Distance between pig and ground
4. Time taken for projectile motion

Now, firstly I will assume the game is being played in the atmosphere of Earth where
g = - 981.7 cm/s, considering this I can solve equation no.5 first.

Using this data, I can go ahead to solve the other equations.

Lets take an example for this level and situation:

1. 9.7 cm
2. 1.7 cm
3. 2.4 cm
4. 1.62 s

Using these values, I will first attempt to solve the equation :

The final velocity = 0 cm/s considering the fact that when the angry bird reaches the pig, it
will have zero velocity as it comes to a stop.

So, now we know that the initial velocity in the y-direction i.e. vertical velocity is
13.73 cm/s.

Vf = Vi + at

0 = 13.73 + (-9.81)t

t = 1.4 s

Using this value, we can deduce the time it should have taken accounting that acceleration
is -981.7 cm/s. This tells us that it should have taken 1.4 seconds when in reality is took
1.62 seconds.
Now, we can used the above equation to find the velocity in the horizontal direction, in the
x-direction. So now we can use the velocity in the vertical direction and horizontal direction
and use Pythagoras's theorem to calculate the diagonal velocity i.e. the velocity the bird
was released to.

Now, using the diagonal velocity, we can find the optimum angle the bird should be thrown
at.

Thus, we can now determine, that in order to aim at the pig in the game, the bird must be
thrown at an angle of 66.4 degrees at a speed of 14.98 cm/s.

Further in this IA, I will find out the equation of the curve and thus integrate it to find the
area covered during this projectile.
Bibliography

1. http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/vectors/Lesson-2/What-is-a-
Projectile
2. http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/Real-Life-Chemistry-Vol-3-
Physics-Vol-1/Projectile-Motion-Real-life-applications.html
3. http://byjus.com/projectile-motion-formula
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBF54W-Qtmo
5. http://byjus.com/projectile-motion-formula