[numuliank]

Nope, expected something interesting, but this is based on a boring brute-force simulation.

He did hint at using a parabolic shape, like in satellite dishes. Why not use some actual calculus and differential equations to figure out the optimal parabolic-like shape here?

[dang]

It's great that you know more, but can you share what you know without putting others or their work down? Doing the latter really poisons the well here.

A much better pattern than "Nope, expected something interesting" is to first affirm something that the author got right or did well, and then build on that with suggestions for refinement, further development, learning. There's plenty of opportunity to show how much you know that way, plus you won't also come across as an internet jerk.

Keep in mind that project creators and authors are often reading these threads, and one nasty comment makes more of an impression than the rest of a thread put together. A single bee sting is more memorable than a field of butterflies. It's too bad that it doesn't work the other way around, but the pattern is super clear. Even the thread the other day with the C Committee guys, which was one of the best technical threads HN has ever hosted, made this impression on them: "Wow, I had no idea people were so mad about locales" (not a direct quote). I hadn't noticed, and when I found the comments they didn't even seem that mad.

[2bitencryption]

"brute-force" is what you call monte carlo if you don't know what monte carlo is

[OscarCunningham]

There won't be a closed form answer because the optimal solution depends on the distribution of the angles and velocities of the shots coming toward the backboard, which will be a complicated real-life distribution.

[v37p]

How is it different from a Newton-Raphson approach, which requires you to make an initial guess as it iterates through several derivatives to get to the root?