Question

As part of a fountain display, two jets of water travel from the surface of an upper pool and meet at the surface of a lower pool, as shown in the diagram. The paths of the two jets are modelled by y=-x^2-4 and y=-3x^2-15x , where x and y are measured in feet. What is the vertical height difference, d, of the pools? Round the answer to the nearest hundredth.

Please help and show steps, I tried and ended up with something wildly wrong.

Answer 1

Hard to say, since you don't indicate where on the parabolas the pools lie.