A) The ball in the ground is represented by h(t)=0, that is, the height is equal to 0, the reference level.
Then, we can find for which values of t we have h(t).
We equal h(t) to 0 and calculate t as:
The ball is in the ground at time t=0 (an instant before it is kicked) and then again at time t=4, that is the value we are looking for: the ball landed again in the ground 4 seconds after kicked.
B) The maximum height can be find in two ways:
- By finding the t-value of the vertex, that in this case will be correspond to the maximum height as this is a concave down parabola with only one extreme point.
- Deriving the function and equaling to 0 and finding t.
If we apply the first method, we have:
As the vertex is at time t=2 seconds, the maximum height happens at t=2.
Answer: A) t = 4 seconds B) t = 2 seconds
NOTE for Part B:
If we derive the expression, we get: