Question

Mike threw a rock off a cliff that is roughly 10 meters above a lake. It can be modeled by the equation h = -4.9t^2+10 where h is the height in meters and t is the time in seconds If you set up a table to determine when the rock hits the water. What would be a reasonable scale for the range

Answers

Answered by GPT-4o mini
To determine when the rock hits the water using the equation \( h = -4.9t^2 + 10 \), we need to find the time \( t \) when \( h = 0 \) (the height of the water).

Setting up the equation:

\[
0 = -4.9t^2 + 10
\]

Rearranging gives:

\[
4.9t^2 = 10
\]

Dividing both sides by 4.9:

\[
t^2 = \frac{10}{4.9} \approx 2.0408
\]

Then taking the square root:

\[
t \approx \sqrt{2.0408} \approx 1.43 \text{ seconds}
\]

Now, to set up a table to determine when the rock hits the water, we can choose a scale for the time \( t \) that includes the time up to when the rock hits the water.

Since the rock hits the water at approximately \( t = 1.43 \) seconds, a reasonable scale for the range of time could be from \( 0 \) to about \( 2 \) seconds, allowing us to see the entire motion of the rock as it falls.

A possible table setup could include time intervals such as \( 0 \), \( 0.5 \), \( 1.0 \), \( 1.5 \), and \( 2.0 \) seconds.

Here's an example of how the table might look:

| Time (t) | Height (h) |
|----------|------------|
| 0.0 | 10.0 |
| 0.5 | 6.23 |
| 1.0 | 5.0 |
| 1.5 | 0.2 |
| 2.0 | -9.8 |

You can calculate the height at each of these time points using the given equation. This table will help visualize when the rock hits the water as well.

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