How to Calculate Kinetic Energy in Archery

Kinetic energy is an important concept for the study of objects in motion. Kinetic energy is the energy of an object created by motion of that object. In archery this concept is important to understand as it can determine how likely an arrow is to penetrate an object. You may find the kinetic energy of an arrow in motion with three measurements and a quick calculation.

Things You'll Need

  • Stopwatch or photogate timer.
  • Scale
  • Tape measure
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Instructions

    • 1

      Put the arrow on the scale and determine the mass of the arrow. As an example, assume the arrow has a mass of 0.5 kilograms.

    • 2

      Measure the distance between a target and the location where you will be shooting with the tape measure. As an example, assume the distance you are shooting is 50 meters.

    • 3

      Measure the time it takes for the arrow to hit the target after it is shot from the bow using the stopwatch or photogate timer. For example, assume the time it takes the arrow to reach the target is one second.

    • 4

      Divide the distance the arrow travels by the time it takes to travel that distance. In the example given here, if the arrow travels 50 meters in one second, the arrow's velocity is 50m/s.

    • 5

      Square the velocity of the arrow. Doing this in the example above gives 2,500 meters squared per seconds squared (m^2/s^2).

    • 6

      Multiply the square of the velocity of the arrow by the mass of the arrow. The mass of the arrow in this example is 0.5 kg, so multiplying this by 2,500m^2/s^2 gives 1,250 joules, where joules is the unit of measurement for energy. Call this result A.

    • 7

      Multiply result A by 0.5. Doing this for the example above gives 625 joules. This is the kinetic energy of the arrow.