Hello! I'm so so confused on this problem for my Trig class. I don't even know where to begin. I'd appreciate your help. Thanks!
"Find the angle needed for a baseball to leave the bat with an initial velocity of 90 miles per hour and first hit the ground 300 feet horizontally from the home plate if contact is made 3 feet above the ground."
90 mi/hr = 132 ft/s
Recall that the height as a function of distance is
y = -g/(2(v cosθ)^2) x^2 + tanθ x + y0
= -32/(2(132 cosθ)^2) x^2 + tanθ x + 3
Since y(300) = 0,
-32/(2(132 cosθ)^2) * 300^2 + tanθ *300 + 3 = 0
so solve for θ
There is a nice article on trajectory at wikipedia.