Question

During a baseball game, a player’s ball hit into the outfield is modeled by the equation h = –16t2 + 65t. A bird flying across the field follows the path modeled by the equation h = 8t + 20. Let t be the time since the ball is hit and h be the height. What do the intersection points of the equations represent?

Answer 1

When two graphs intersect, it means something in real-life:

The baseball's flight path and the bird's flight path intersect.

Therefore, the baseball hits the bird. (Technically, we can see that the baseball would hit the bird twice, but this is not likely.)

Answer 2

C. the time when the height of the ball and the bird are the same