Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-1-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/1/solution

For a launch angle , the projectile motion equations give a flight time , a projectile range , and an apex height . Thus the ceiling requires .
Set . Then , which increases up to . The optimum is therefore , giving the projectile range under a ceiling
The printed expression is valid in the first regime. A higher ceiling leaves the usual launch admissible, so it cannot reduce the maximum range. The angle in the ceiling-limited regime is . Equality at the roof is allowed in this ideal geometrical model; if touching the roof is forbidden, the same value is a supremum approached from below.
Figure 1.
The tunnel ceiling limits low launches, while a sufficiently high roof leaves the ordinary maximum range unchanged
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