Question

A particle moves along the x-axis so that its velocity in feet per second at time x, in seconds, is modeled by the quadratic function y = 2x2 − 10x + 12. What does the number 12 represent for the quadratic function?

 The particle is 12 feet above the x-axis initially.

  The particle's initially velocity is 12.  
The particle is 12 feet to the left of the origin initially.

 
The particle's terminal velocity is 12.

Answer 1

For this case we have the following equation:

`image`

Where, we have the following variables:

x: time in seconds

y: speed in feet per seconds

For the initial velocity, we evaluate x = 0 in the given equation:

`image`

Therefore, the initial speed is 12 feet per second.

Answer:

The particle's initially velocity is 12.