At what angle does the stone have to be hit?

Question

What I have so far:

11 inches = 0.916667 feet

Let a represent θ

tan a = 0.916667 / 87 = 0.010536402

tan^-1(0.010536402) = 0.6036... rounded to 0.6 degrees.

Is this correct?

Answer 1

Within a total angle of $4\arcsin{\frac{5.5}{(12\times87)+5.5}}$ or approximately 1 degree + 12 minutes + 3.8175 seconds. It should be noted that the configuration shown in your diagram cannot be attained without curling the path of the moving stone, because when the two stones become tangent at the furthest extent of the possible contact angle, the center of the moving stone is not yet up to the line that you have the three tangent stones shown at. At the point when the moving stone is going to be minimally tangent to the stationary stone the distance between the point of release and the center of the moving stone should equal the distance between the point of release and the center of the target stone. 87 feet + 5.5 inches, in other words. The 5.5 inches is the radius of a stone, of course.

By the way, from what part of Canada are you?