Vertical Resisted Motion & Terminal Velocity

Vertical resisted motion and terminal velocity is part of the Mechanics topic in NSW Year 12 Mathematics Extension 2 (NESA outcome ME2-12-05). This subtopic models a body rising or falling through air or another medium, where gravity is constant and a resistance of the form \(kv\) or \(kv^2\) opposes the motion.

Students and teachers will cover deriving speed and height as functions of time or distance, finding the terminal velocity a falling body approaches, and working out the greatest height of an object thrown upwards and the times to rise and to fall back — a rich modelling context in the HSC Extension 2 course.