Question:
The height of Peter’s baseball is given by the graph below (See attachment)
- When will Peter’s baseball reach the highest height? What is the height?
- When will Peter’s baseball hit the ground? Use mathematical evidence to explain your answer.
Answer:
- Peter's baseball reached the maximum height at 1.5 seconds
- Peter's baseball hit the ground at 4 seconds
Explanation:
The (a) & (b) will be answered by making reference to the attachment.
Solving (a): Time to reach maximum height
The height is plotted at the vertical axis while the time taken is at the horizontal axis.
From the attachment; the following details can be observed
- The maximum height is at 90ft
- When the maximum height is traced to the horizontal axis, the corresponding time is 1.5s
Using function notations, this can be represented as:
And the interpretation is that:
Peter's baseball reached the maximum height at 1.5 seconds
Solving (b): Time to hit the ground
The interpretation of this question is to solve for the x intercept of the graph.
From the attachment; the following details can be observed
- The ground is at 0 feet
- The corresponding time at 0 feet is 4s
Using function notations, this can be represented as:
And the interpretation is that:
Peter's baseball hit the ground at 4 seconds