Exploration

Let's dive deeper by conducting our own scientific exploration. We now analyze how gravity affects the trajectory of the projectile by configuring a custom study that simulates the same projectile on different planets (the Earth, the Moon and Mars):

1. Declare a new study
   Create a new study named Study_Gravity.

2. Configure the variable and fixed inputs
   Set the gravity input parameter as variable and keep all other inputs fixed.

3. Define the input datasets
   Create three distinct input datasets to test different gravity values:

   • Earth: Set the parameter to the gravity of the Earth (-9.81 m/s², which is already the default value).
   • Moon: Set the parameter to the gravity of the Moon (-1.62 m/s²).
   • Mars: Set the parameter to the gravity of Mars (-3.72 m/s²).

4. Manage the execution flow
   To focus strictly on our new exploration, we can disable the execution of Study_Shape and Study_Velocity.

5. Enable silent mode
   Configure the software processes (PolygonGeometryProc, ProjectileModelProc, and TrajectoryAnalysisProc) to run in silent mode. This prevents interactive windows from popping up, allowing the application to execute all computations quietly in the background.

6. Run and review
   Run the application. Once the computations are complete, access the results for Study_Gravity to compare the various trajectories of the projectile across the three different environments.

7. Refine the analysis
   By default, all curves in the overall_comparisons.png output are plotted using the same style (red circular markers). To better distinguish them, we can customize the style of each curve in the results settings of the TrajectoryAnalysisProc (the software process that generates this specific output). Let's then adjust the settings as follows:

   • For the Earth:
     • marker: D
     • markersize: 6
     • markevery: 40
   • For the Moon:
     • color: limegreen
     • marker: v
     • markevery: 50
   • For Mars:
     • color: dodgerblue
     • marker: X
     • markevery: 50

8. Restart the analysis
   To update the overall_comparisons.png plot without re-running the entire study, we can disable the execution of PolygonGeometryProc and ProjectileModelProc and relaunch the application to execute only the TrajectoryAnalysisProc. The results section will instantly refresh with our new visual styles.

9. Run your own experiment
   It is now your turn to expand this exploration. Add a fourth input dataset to the Study_Gravity by choosing a planet of your choice (e.g., Jupiter, Venus, or even the Sun) and look up its gravity value:

   • To avoid repeated computations, you can disable the execution of the previous datasets (Earth, Moon, Mars) within the study. This ensures the application will only process your new dataset.
   • However, make sure to re-enable the execution of the PolygonGeometryProc and ProjectileModelProc so they can generate their output results for this new dataset.
   • Customize the appearance of your new curve in the TrajectoryAnalysisProc results settings. You can refer to the Matplotlib conventions for the colors, markers and linestyles.

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Onboarding

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