A young baseball player thinks he has hit a home run and gets excited, but, instead, he has just hit it to an outfielder who is just able to catch the ball, and does so at ground level. The ball was hit at a height of 1.5 meters from the ground at an angle $\phi$ above the horizontal axis. The catch was taken at a horizontal distance 30 meters from home plate, which was where the batter hit the ball. The ball left the bat at a speed of 21 m/s. Find all possible values $0<\phi<90^\circ$, in degrees, rounded to the nearest integer. You may use WolframAlpha, Mathematica, or a graphing aid to compute $\phi$ after you derive an expression to solve for it. [i](Proposed by Ahaan Rungta)[/i]

A massless string is wrapped around a frictionless pulley of mass $M$. The string is pulled down with a force of 50 N, so that the pulley rotates due to the pull. Consider a point $P$ on the rim of the pulley, which is a solid cylinder. The point has a constant linear (tangential) acceleration component equal to the acceleration of gravity on Earth, which is where this experiment is being held. What is the weight of the cylindrical pulley, in Newtons? [i](Proposed by Ahaan Rungta)[/i] [hide="Note"] This problem was not fully correct. Within friction, the pulley cannot rotate. So we responded: [quote]Excellent observation! This is very true. To submit, I'd say just submit as if it were rotating and ignore friction. In some effects such as these, I'm pretty sure it turns out that friction doesn't change the answer much anyway, but, yes, just submit as if it were rotating and you are just ignoring friction. [/quote]So do this problem imagining that the pulley does rotate somehow. [/hide]

A fancy bathroom scale is calibrated in Newtons. This scale is put on a ramp, which is at a $40^\circ$ angle to the horizontal. A box is then put on the scale and the box-scale system is then pushed up the ramp by a horizontal force $F$. The system slides up the ramp at a constant speed. If the bathroom scale reads $R$ and the coefficient of static friction between the system and the ramp is $0.40$, what is $\frac{F}{R}$? Round to the nearest thousandth. [i](Proposed by Ahaan Rungta)[/i]

A conical pendulum is formed from a rope of length $ 0.50 \, \text{m} $ and negligible mass, which is suspended from a fixed pivot attached to the ceiling. A ping-pong ball of mass $ 3.0 \, \text{g} $ is attached to the lower end of the rope. The ball moves in a circle with constant speed in the horizontal plane and the ball goes through one revolution in $ 1.0 \, \text{s} $. How high is the ceiling in comparison to the horizontal plane in which the ball revolves? Express your answer to two significant digits, in cm. [i](Proposed by Ahaan Rungta)[/i] [hide="Clarification"] During the WOOT Contest, contestants wondered what exactly a conical pendulum looked like. Since contestants were not permitted to look up information during the contest, we posted this diagram: [asy] size(6cm); import olympiad; draw((-1,3)--(1,3)); draw(xscale(4) * scale(0.5) * unitcircle, dotted); draw(origin--(0,3), dashed); label("$h$", (0,1.5), dir(180)); draw((0,3)--(2,0)); filldraw(shift(2) * scale(0.2) * unitcircle, 1.4*grey, black); dot(origin); dot((0,3));[/asy]The question is to find $h$. [/hide]

A block of mass $m$ on a frictionless inclined plane of angle $\theta$ is connected by a cord over a small frictionless, massless pulley to a second block of mass $M$ hanging vertically, as shown. If $M=1.5m$, and the acceleration of the system is $\frac{g}{3}$, where $g$ is the acceleration of gravity, what is $\theta$, in degrees, rounded to the nearest integer? [asy]size(12cm); pen p=linewidth(1), dark_grey=gray(0.25), ll_grey=gray(0.90), light_grey=gray(0.75); pair B = (-1,-1); pair C = (-1,-7); pair A = (-13,-7); path inclined_plane = A--B--C--cycle; draw(inclined_plane, p); real r = 1; // for marking angles draw(arc(A, r, 0, degrees(B-A))); // mark angle label("$\theta$", A + r/1.337*(dir(C-A)+dir(B-A)), (0,0), fontsize(16pt)); // label angle as theta draw((C+(-r/2,0))--(C+(-r/2,r/2))--(C+(0,r/2))); // draw right angle real h = 1.2; // height of box real w = 1.9; // width of box path box = (0,0)--(0,h)--(w,h)--(w,0)--cycle; // the box // box on slope with label picture box_on_slope; filldraw(box_on_slope, box, light_grey, black); label(box_on_slope, "$m$", (w/2,h/2)); pair V = A + rotate(90) * (h/2 * dir(B-A)); // point with distance l/2 from AB pair T1 = dir(125); // point of tangency with pulley pair X1 = intersectionpoint(T1--(T1 - rotate(-90)*(2013*dir(T1))), V--(V+B-A)); // construct midpoint of right side of box draw(T1--X1); // string add(shift(X1-(w,h/2))*rotate(degrees(B-A), (w,h/2)) * box_on_slope); // picture for the hanging box picture hanging_box; filldraw(hanging_box, box, light_grey, black); label(hanging_box, "$M$", (w/2,h/2)); pair T2 = (1,0); pair X2 = (1,-3); draw(T2--X2); // string add(shift(X2-(w/2,h)) * hanging_box); // Draws the actual pulley filldraw(unitcircle, grey, p); // outer boundary of pulley wheel filldraw(scale(0.4)*unitcircle, light_grey, p); // inner boundary of pulley wheel path pulley_body=arc((0,0),0.3,-40,130)--arc((-1,-1),0.5,130,320)--cycle; // defines "arm" of pulley filldraw(pulley_body, ll_grey, dark_grey+p); // draws the arm filldraw(scale(0.18)*unitcircle, ll_grey, dark_grey+p); // inner circle of pulley[/asy][i](Proposed by Ahaan Rungta)[/i]

A uniform ladder of mass $m$ and length $\mathcal{L}$ is resting on a wall. A man of mass $m$ climbs up the ladder and is in perfect equilibrium with the ladder when he is $\frac{2}{3}\mathcal{L}$ the way up the ladder. The ladder makes an angle of $ \theta = 30^\circ $ with the horizontal floor. If the coefficient of static friction between the ladder and the wall is the same as that between the ladder and the floor, which is $\mu$, what is $\mu$, expressed to the nearest thousandth? [i](Proposed by Ahaan Rungta)[/i]