Let's consider the scenario of a soccer ball being kicked upwards into the air from a height of 3 feet. We can model the height of the soccer ball above the ground as a quadratic function using the formula \( y = -16t^2 + vt + h \), where \( v \) is the initial velocity (in feet per second) when the ball is kicked, and \( h \) is the initial height (in feet). For this example, let's assume the initial velocity of the ball is 20 feet per second. Therefore, the complete function becomes:
\[ y = -16t^2 + 20t + 3. \]
In this function, \( y \) represents the height of the soccer ball in feet, and \( t \) is the time in seconds after the ball has been kicked. The constant value of -16 represents the acceleration due to gravity in feet per second squared (the negative sign indicates that the height decreases over time), while the initial height \( h \) of 3 feet indicates the starting position from which the ball is kicked. To predict when the ball will hit the ground, we would set \( y = 0 \) and solve for \( t \).