What is the maximum angle at which a ball thrown keeps going away from you?

00:54 Hint given | 04:35 Solution starts | 08:51 Answer | 09:13 Animation

Animate projectile motion and watch the distance from origin vary. Change angle or speed and see the effect.

Animated on Desmos

Question P1L2: Concepts used in solution

Equations of motion | Vectors | Vector dot product

Click here to play and explore quadratic equations  and the role of the discriminant

Problem statement

What is the maximum angle at which a projectile can be thrown such that the distance from the launch point keeps increasing with time?