SOLUTION: A fire hose shoots water into the air from the ground. The formula h = -4.9t2 + 7t gives the height in meters t seconds after leaving the ground. This motion is called projectile
Question 591740: A fire hose shoots water into the air from the ground. The formula h = -4.9t2 + 7t gives the height in meters t seconds after leaving the ground. This motion is called projectile motion and the path is the same as a cannon ball shot out of a cannon or a baseball thrown in the air at 7 meters per second could follow.
a. Does the graph of this equation resemble a U or an upside down U? How did you determine this?
b. Describe what happens the height of a drop of water leaving the hose as time passes?
c. Use the method of your choice to find how long it takes water to travel from the tip of the hose back to the ground.
d. Will the height peak or be at a low during the middle of the time the water is in the air? How do you know?
e. After how many seconds will the peak or low occur?
f. How high will the water be when the peak or low occurs?
g. What are the coordinates of the vertex? How does this number relate to your answers in parts e and f?
h. How many solutions are there to the equation 0 = -4.9t2 + 7t? How do you know?
i. To use the quadratic formula to solve an equation like this, we need three values, represented in your text by a, b and c. In the equation in part h, what are a, b & c?
j. What do the solutions represent? Is there a solution that does not make sense? If so, in what ways does the solution not make sense?
