Honors Problem 8

Question

Fenway Park is a Major League Baseball park in Boston. The park offers seats on top of the left field wall. A person sitting in one of these seats accidentally dropped his sunglasses on the field. The height h (in feet) of the sunglasses can be modeled by the function h = -16t2 + 38 where t is the time (in seconds) since the sunglasses were dropped. Find the time it takes for the sunglasses to reach the field. Round your answer to the nearest hundredth.

Answer 1

The height of the sunglasses when they hit the field is 0 feet.  So substitute h = 0 and solve the equation

 

0=-16t²+38

-38 = -16t²

2.325 = t²

1.52 seconds = t