I don't know either. I do know that you have to hit the penguin like a line drive, not a pop up. It goes further when it bounces and slides, rather than the face plant.
Yes it definitely takes a line drive and apparently the highest trajectory you can get without a face plant. Took about a dozen tries determining that a line drive and bounce worked the best then a few dozen more getting the timing down. I am sure there’s a mathematical peak, but only the source code (or programmer) would tell.
I found this game on Fetch Fido's online games awhile back. My best was 653 something but I could never even get back into the 500s so I gave up. I had my score wrotten on a sticky note that I threw away the day before yesterday that's how I remembered. Fido's has lots of cool little games like this.