The projectile motion of papers flying through the air can be modeled by the function below where the height of the papers is in feet and "t" is in seconds

Question

h=-16t^2+3t+5

How long will it take for the papers to hit the ground? Round to the two decimal places.

Answer 1

0.66 seconds to hit the ground

set h(t) = 0 =-16t^2 + 3t +5, use the quadratic formula to solve for t, ignore the negative square root

t=-b/2a + and - (1/2a)sqr(b^2-4ac) where a=-16, b=3, c=5

t = 6/32 + (1/32)square root(9+320) = 0.66 seconcs

t= slightly less than 2/3 of a second