How far would a baseball have to travel to clear offense 20 feet high that's 295 feet away

Question

How far would a baseball have to travel to clear offense 20 feet high that's 295 feet away

Answer 1

Hi Greg,

 

The straight line of travel for the baseball would be the a hypotenuse of a right triangle with the fence being its vertical height from the ground and its base being the horizontal distance from the batter to the fence.

 

We can use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the length of the hypotenuse (straight line of travel from the batter to the top of the fence):

    x² = 20² + 295² 

    x² = 400 + 87025

    x² = 87425

    x = √87425

    x = 295.6771888

 

Therefore, shortest distance to clear the fence - we round up our answer to the nearest foot (296 feet).

 

Thanks for submitting this problem and glad to help.

 

God bless, Jordan.