Can a lion jump 36 feet?

Using data from Rory Young's quora answer: yes, a lion definitely can jump 10+ meters.

The horizontal distance D of a projectile with speed V, launched at an angle $\theta$ is:

$D = V^2 \cdot sin(2\theta) / g$

Which gives, for a lion running at 54km/sec, i.e. V=15 m/s, jumping at an angle of 45 degrees, and assuming $g \approx 10m/s^2$:

$D = 22.5 m$

Considering that running at maximum speed and jumping at 45 degrees is very hard, even for a lion, this is an over-estimation. But jumping at 15 degrees would allow the lion to fly over a distance D:

$D \approx 11 m = 36ft$

Below some books on the subject. I only read a few pages from each of them:

Guggisberg, in his "Simba: The life of a lion" reports a speed of 48-59kph, confirmed by Schaller in his "The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations" –the reference book on the African Lion since its publication in 1972.

Previous estimates are given by Howell, in his "Speed in animals, their specialization for running and leaping" (1944): he reports lions' speed at 80kph, which was considered too high by Schaller.

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