Question

Racquetballs are sealed in a pressurized container to maintain the rebound percentage

of the balls. A racquetball has a rebound percentage of 83% when it is taken out of the
pressurized can. Suppose a racquetball is dropped from a height of 3 meters onto a
racquetball court. Use the rebound rate given to predict the height of the ball after the
first 5 bounces​

Answer 1

1.182 meters.

Explanation:

We have that the initial height is 3 meters, we know that after each rebound it recovers 83% of the original height, therefore:

First bounce:

3 * 0.83 = 2.49

Second bounce:

2.49 * 0.83 = 2.0667

We can deduce a formula here:

hn = 3 * (0.83) ^ n

where is the bounce number, we know that the bounce number that we want to find the height is 5, therefore:

h5 = 3 * (0.83) ^ 5

h5 = 1.182

which means that at the fifth bounce, the height is 1.182 meters.