A basketball player is 15 ft horizontally from the center of the basket, which is 10 ft off the ground. At what angle should the player aim the ball if it is thrown from a height of 8.2 ft with a speed of 29 ft/s ?

Question

anonymous · Answer

i understand why the answer is 6/25, but for my problem i am asked to give two angles?

anonymous · Answer

yes...there can be two angles..since sin(theta) and sin(pi-theta) have the same values...

anonymous · Answer

u can see it from  equation of parabolic trajectory of a projectile:
y=tan(theta)x-(1/2)g (x/ucos(theta))^2 ....fo for a given co-ord of (x,y)....there can be two thetas which will satisfy this equation....theta and (pi-theta)

anonymous · Answer

okay i think i understand what you are saying. would i just plug in the 6/25 into the thetas for each of the two problems?

anonymous · Answer

or in another way...we can understand it from the horizontal range formula...
R=u^2sin2(theta)/g....so for theta and (90-theta) R will have the same values for a given speed...

anonymous · Answer

what's 6/25?

anonymous · Answer

angle in radian?

anonymous · Answer

in the original problem it ended with tan(theta) = horizontal displacement/vertical displacement which was 6/25?

anonymous · Answer

how did u reach here?

anonymous · Answer

i used the equation of motion but im not sure of how to get the two different angles now? im not sure of where to plug the numbers in to get to the two different angles?

anonymous · Answer

just wait...1st make a diagram....|dw:1346739132096:dw|