Problem of the Week

Many thanks to Jens Voss for the following tennis inspired problem..

Tennis players jump up for a service.  One reason for this might be in order to increase the "court angle" of the ball, a , see the sketch above.  This is the angle bounded below by the straight line from the ball to the top of the net and above by the line from the ball to the service-line on the opponents side of the court. Assume that the distance from the players toes to the center of the racket with which the ball is hit is 2.5 meters. How high does the player have to jump in order to maximize her court angle?

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ã2002 Alberto L. Delgado