Let's rewrite the velocity at a height h of 8.9 m as:


The motion of the ball is a parabolic motion: it is a uniform motion on x-axis (so,

is constant) and an accelerated motion on the y-axis (with acceleration equal to

, the gravitational acceleration, with a negative sign because it points downwards).
Let's solve the exercise step-by-step.
a) We can solve this part by writing the laws of motion on x and y using the data at h=8.9 m as initial data.



The maximum height

is the height at which the velocity on the y-axis is zero. We can find the time

at which this happens by requiring

:

from which we find

and then substituting in

we find the maximum height:


2) To find the total horizontal distance, we must find the intial conditions of the motion, at t=0. Let's call

the initial velocity on the y-axis (we already know the initial velocity on the x-axis, which is

. Then the velocity law on the y-axis is

let's also call

the time t at which the ball reaches the height h=8.9m. At this time

,

. Therefore we can write the following system of equations:


Solving this system, we find

and

now that we know the initial velocities on both axis, we can find the time

at which the ball reaches the ground. This happens when

. The law of motion on y is

And if we require

, we find two solutions: t=0 (beginning of the motion) and

, which is the moment when the ball reaches the ground. To find the total horizontal distance covered we just need to put this time into the equation of

:

c) To solve this part of the problem, we must find the vertical velocity at the time the ball hits the ground, so:

which is negative because now the ball is going downwards.
So, the magnitude of the velocity just before the ball hits the ground is

d) The tangent of the angle of the velocity is the ratio between the two components of the velocity:

from which we find
