ver.1.6

How far from the left wall did it bounce?

A hard-level "Length" problem.For a bounce, reflect and straighten. Turning a bent path into a straight one is a powerful move.

GivenA table 12 m wide. A ball is hit from A, 3 m up the left wall, bounces once off the bottom wall, and hits B, 6 m up the right wall.

Length ★★★★☆☆ How far from the left wall did it bounce? AB 3m 6m 12m ?

Hints

  1. When it bounces, the angle coming in equals the angle going out. But we do not know what that angle is, so this alone will not give us a length.
  2. Here is the move: treat the bottom wall as a mirror and reflect A across it. Call the reflected point A′ — it sits the same 3 m from the wall, but below.
  3. Reflection keeps lengths and angles, so A′-to-bounce is exactly as long as A-to-bounce. The ball's path has simply been copied to the other side of the wall.
  4. And here is the payoff: because the two angles are equal, A′ → bounce → B is perfectly straight. The bent path has turned into an ordinary straight line.
  5. Now it is just similar triangles. From A′ to B the line rises 3 + 6 = 9 m while running 12 m across. The bounce happens after 3 m of that rise, so across it is 12 × 3 ÷ 9.

Answer 4m

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