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According to legend, in 1589,
the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei dropped rocks of
different weights from the top of the Leaning Tower
of Pisa to prove his conjecture that the rocks
would hit the ground at the same time.

a. The original height of the tower was
about 196 feet. Write a function h that
gives the height (in feet) of a rock
dropped from the top of the original
tower after t seconds. Interpret each
term. How long does the rock take to
hit the ground?

b. Find and interpret h(1.25) - h(2.5).

User Piedone
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2 Answers

20 votes
20 votes

Final answer:

Galileo dropped rocks of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to prove his conjecture. The height of a rock dropped from the tower can be represented by a function. The rock takes approximately 3.5 seconds to hit the ground.

Step-by-step explanation:

The height of a rock dropped from the top of the original Leaning Tower of Pisa can be represented by the function h(t) = 196 - 16t^2, where h(t) is the height in feet and t is the time in seconds. The term 16t^2 represents the distance the rock has fallen due to gravity, and the term 196 represents the initial height of the tower. The rock takes approximately 3.5 seconds to hit the ground.

To find h(1.25) - h(2.5), we substitute the values into the function. So h(1.25) represents the height of the rock after 1.25 seconds, and h(2.5) represents the height after 2.5 seconds. Subtracting these values would give us the change in height during that time period.

User PorcupineRending
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18 votes
18 votes

Answer: negative the slope is going down but if it went up then it would be positive but in this case its negative

User Arturkuchynski
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