Question

A ball is dropped from a certain height. The function below represents the height f(n), in feet, to which the ball bounces at the nth bounce: f(n) = 9(0.7)n What does the number 9 in the function represent?

Answer 1

Initial height or what the ball was originally bounced from a height of 9 feet

Explanation:

9 represents the height that the ball was originally bounced from.

If you plug in 0 for into , you get:

.

9 feet is the initial height since that is what happens at time zero.

Answer 2

Initial height or what the ball was originally bounced from a height of 9 feet

Explanation:

9 represents the height that the ball was originally bounced from.

If you plug in 0 for
`n` into
`f(n)=9(0.7)^n`, you get:

`f(0)=9(0.7)^0=9(1)=9`.

9 feet is the initial height since that is what happens at time zero.