Question

The flying squirrel of eastern Texas can drop a height of 60 feet. A function that approximates this drop is h=-16t^2+60, where h is the height in feet and t is the time in seconds. About how many seconds does it take for the squirrel to drop 60 feet?

Answer 1

About 1.94 seconds

Explanation:

The quadratic equation gives the height of the squirrel from its starting position, which is 60 feet above ground.

The equation is:

`h=-16t^2+60`

To find time it takes to "drop" 60 feet, means the ground level, where height is equal to 0.

Or, h = 0

We substitute h = 0 into the equation and solve for t:

`h=-16t^2+60\\0=-16t^2+60\\16t^2=60\\t^2=3.75\\t=√(3.75)\\t=1.94`

So, it takes the squirrel about 1.94 seconds to drop 60 feet