You kick a ball over a flat field. Taking into account gravity, but disregarding everything else like wind, friction, bounces, etc., etc., at what angle should you kick it so the ball lands the farthest away from you? And at what angle should you kick it so the ball makes the longest trajectory before landing?

(In reply to re: Where am I wrong? by ajosin)

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Where do the last two terms come from?. Remember you want dx^2+dy^2, not (dx+dy)^2.
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You are exactly right, thank you.  No wonder it turned out to be a perfect square.  I basically did integral (dx + dy) over the trajectory, so no wonder it came out the same as the total horizontal length of the kick.  All the dy's cancel out because what goes up must come down.

Posted by Larry on 2005-03-20 15:00:57