Today after writing a (gr.11) physics midterm, the question came into my head: if you have a projectile fired off the edge of a cliff, is there a specific (vertical) angle of launch (off the horizon) that could always result in the maximum possible horizontal distance that the projectile could travel before hitting the ground? After I did some figuring I came to the conclusion that this is not the case, but that the taller the cliff is, the less the degree of the angle that would give you the maximum horizontal distance. Now my question is, how can I come up with a formula that would represent this ratio between hight of cliff/drop and angle of launch (to recieve maximum distance)?
Interesting physics question?
- Thread starter Bob
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