Help with a bell shaped function

[badabing]

As a prerequisite. This is not for a home assignment, this is a problem I've encountered while programming a game. I wasn't sure if this was outside the bounds of the intended purpose of this site. If so, please feel free to disregard this thread.

The problem is this:

I need a function that:

a) Describes a distance between a and b
b) I need the object that is traveling this distance to accelerate and decelerate along the curve so that it hits 0 speed in a and in b and so that the graph that is representing the speed of the object is bell shaped.
c) I need the bell shaped curve to vary between distances. Short distances means low curves. Long distances means high curves. And maybe an inclusion of a constant that determines the flatness of the curve for testing purposes.

Again, I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place. All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 4993]

As a prerequisite. This is not for a home assignment, this is a problem I've encountered while programming a game. I wasn't sure if this was outside the bounds of the intended purpose of this site. If so, please feel free to disregard this thread.

The problem is this:

I need a function that:

a) Describes a distance between a and b
b) I need the object that is traveling this distance to accelerate and decelerate along the curve so that it hits 0 speed in a and in b and so that the graph that is representing the speed of the object is bell shaped.
c) I need the bell shaped curve to vary between distances. Short distances means low curves. Long distances means high curves. And maybe an inclusion of a constant that determines the flatness of the curve for testing purposes.

Again, I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place. All help is greatly appreciated.

Please follow the rules of posting in this forum, as enunciated at:

READ BEFORE POSTING

Please share your work/thoughts about this work.

To start:

What is the functional description of the path?

I see you describe in words as "bell-shaped". That can be part of "error-function" or "sinusoidal" function, or parabolic function, etc. What type of function are you thinking about?

You say: "Short distances means low curves. Long distances means high curves." - What does that mean mathematically or "graphically"?

You say ""I need the object that is traveling this distance to accelerate and decelerate along the curve" - What "force" are you applying to make the object behave like that?

I think your best bet will be to go to your local community college (or university) and find a friendly professor who can discuss these face-2-face with you.

 

[badabing]

Please follow the rules of posting in this forum, as enunciated at:

READ BEFORE POSTING

Please share your work/thoughts about this work.

To start:

What is the functional description of the path?

I see you describe in words as "bell-shaped". That can be part of "error-function" or "sinusoidal" function, or parabolic function, etc. What type of function are you thinking about?

You say: "Short distances means low curves. Long distances means high curves." - What does that mean mathematically or "graphically"?

You say ""I need the object that is traveling this distance to accelerate and decelerate along the curve" - What "force" are you applying to make the object behave like that?

I think your best bet will be to go to your local community college (or university) and find a friendly professor who can discuss these face-2-face with you.

Thanks for the reply Subhotosh and fair enough. My question might be a bit difficult to work with. To simplify a bit, I'm not looking for *the* answer, I'm looking for *an* answer. The function could be any function that creates a bell shaped graph, the speed of the object needs to follow this graph (no force or any other physics needs to be applied), high and low curves just means that the high curves are higher than the low curves (again I don't have any specific conditions that needs to be met, any answer will do).
Again I realize that this might not be the correct place to post this question. If so, please feel free to lock or delete this thread.