It's been a very busy May for me. I've increased the number of my training hours per week from 4 hours to 11 hours in the lead up to the Boccia World Championships from 30 May to 10 Jun 2010. It'll be my first time meeting boccia athletes beyond the Asia Pacific region and I'm excited to learn from them first-hand because there's only so much you can learn from watching videos on Youtube.
Spending over 11 hours at training to get accustomed to my assistive devices and perfecting my shots got me wondering whether there was a simpler way to determine the exact location of a ball on my ramp that will result in it landing at a particular distance. Let's see whether the following pictures can help illustrate what I mean. Firstly, let us take a look at the ramp and how i use it to propel my balls with the help of my headpointer and sports assistant.
Now on to the physics question. Please refer to the diagram below:
Assume that a ball placed in the location above will travel a distance of 5m upon leaving the tip of the ramp.
1. Relative to the position of the ball above, how far up/down the length of the ramp should the ball be placed to achieve a travelled distance of 3, 7 and 9m?
2. If the height of the ramp is insufficient, how much more ramp extensions (dotted portion in the diagram) is required?
Have fun solving this problem! I hope to hear some solutions from you. =) Your solutions would help me familiarise faster with any new set of balls.