# How to actually account for air resistance?

What's interested me in my studies thus far is that in a lot of beginner undergrad mathematics and physics courses we're often told to calculate trajectories, velocities, etc. by "ignoring air resistance". Obviously this doesn't accurately model real life.

How is calculating a problem without ignoring air resistance actually done? Is there some kind of "air resistance function" which varies based on altitude?

• You can account for it ad-hoc (with a linear or quadratic velocity dependent resistive force), or you can do it "right" and calculate it based on hydrodynamics. The level of difficulty rises very considerably as you go form ad-hoc linear to ad-hoc quadratic to hydrodynamic calculations. Dec 19, 2014 at 8:38

Yes, there is. Usually air resistance or other kinds of resistant forces can be considered as $bv^2$ or $bv$ where $b$ is a constant that depends on many things. For example, pressure, density, and so on. These functions are just an approximation and derived experimentally. You know that friction is an actual complicated force! They are usually neglected for we have a simple differential equation.