Motion of a Particle in a Resisting Medium Using Fractional Calculus Approach

Abstract

In this manuscript we propose a fractional differential equation to describe the vertical motion of a body through the air. The order of the derivative was considered to be 0 < gamma <= 1. To keep the dimensionality of the physical parameter in the system, an auxiliary parameter sigma is introduced. This parameter characterizes the existence of fractional components in the given system. We prove that there is a relation between gamma and sigma through the physical parameter of the system and that, due to this relation the analytical solutions are given in terms of the Mittag-Leffler function depending on the order of the fractional differential equation.