SOLUTION: A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 270-foot building throws a baseball vertically upward. The quadratic equation h = -16 t^2 + 160 t + 270 models the ball's

Algebra.Com
Question 992194: A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 270-foot building throws a baseball vertically upward. The quadratic equation
h = -16 t^2 + 160 t + 270
models the ball's height \, h \, above the ground in feet, t seconds after it was thrown.
How high is the ball after 5 seconds?


How many seconds does it take until the ball finally hits the ground? Round to the nearest tenth of a second.

Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 270-foot building throws a baseball vertically upward. The quadratic equation
h = -16 t^2 + 160 t + 270
models the ball's height h above the ground in feet, t seconds after it was thrown.
How high is the ball after 5 seconds?
----
h(t) = -16t^2 + 160t + 270
Find h(5) = sub 5 for t.
h(5) is 670 feet.
---------------------
How many seconds does it take until the ball finally hits the ground? Round to the nearest tenth of a second.
h(t) = -16t^2 + 160t + 270
-16t^2 + 160t + 270 = 0
Solve for t. Use the positive solution.
-----
Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation (work shown, graph etc)
Quadratic equation (in our case ) has the following solutons:



For these solutions to exist, the discriminant should not be a negative number.

First, we need to compute the discriminant : .

Discriminant d=42880 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions: .




Quadratic expression can be factored:

Again, the answer is: -1.47108955277239, 11.4710895527724. Here's your graph:

==================================================
t = 11.5 seconds.
Maybe you didn't use the nearest 10th ?

RELATED QUESTIONS

A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 170 foot building throws a baseball... (answered by KMST)
A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 270-foot building throws a baseball... (answered by rothauserc)
A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 264 foot building throws a baseball... (answered by KMST)
#1. A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 122-foot building throws a... (answered by nerdybill)
A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 195-foot building throws a baseball... (answered by Alan3354)
A person standing close to the edge on top of a 192-foot building throws a baseball... (answered by nerdybill)
I am not sure if I'm doing this right... I got 2 seconds ? A person standing close to... (answered by jim_thompson5910)
A person standing close to the edge on the top of a 160-foot building throws a baseball... (answered by ikleyn,greenestamps)
A person standing close to the edge on top of a 112-foot building throws a ball... (answered by ikleyn)