At what angle with the horizontal should a hunter aim his gun so he will hit a target is 60 meters horizontally away from him, and 20.0 mm above him, if the muzzle velocity of the bullet is 400 m/s?

This one's giving me a hard time. I know x=vcos(theta)t
y= vsin(theta)t-(gt^2)/2

but dang doing the algebra to solve for theta is a pain. Anybody got an idea how to make this easier?

Question

At what angle with the horizontal should a hunter aim his gun so he will hit a target is 60 meters horizontally away from him, and 20.0 mm above him, if the muzzle velocity of the bullet is 400 m/s?

This one's giving me a hard time. I know x=vcos(theta)t
y= vsin(theta)t-(gt^2)/2

but dang doing the algebra to solve for theta is a pain. Anybody got an idea how to make this easier?

anonymous · Answer

Oops sorry this should be on the physics discussion group.