Question

An object is launched from a platform. Its height, y (in meters), x seconds after the launch is modeled by the function y=−5(x−4)^2+180.

What is the object’s height after 10 seconds?

What is the rate of change for the interval 5 seconds to 8 seconds?

Show your work. in 3 sentences.

Answers

GPT-4o mini
To find the object's height after 10 seconds, we substitute \( x = 10 \) into the height function:

\[
y = -5(10 - 4)^2 + 180 = -5(6)^2 + 180 = -5(36) + 180 = -180 + 180 = 0 \, \text{meters}.
\]

To determine the rate of change between 5 seconds and 8 seconds, we first calculate the heights at these times:
- For \( x = 5 \):

\[
y(5) = -5(5 - 4)^2 + 180 = -5(1)^2 + 180 = -5 + 180 = 175 \, \text{meters}.
\]

- For \( x = 8 \):

\[
y(8) = -5(8 - 4)^2 + 180 = -5(4)^2 + 180 = -80 + 180 = 100 \, \text{meters}.
\]

Now, we find the rate of change \( R \) over the interval from 5 seconds to 8 seconds:

\[
R = \frac{y(8) - y(5)}{8 - 5} = \frac{100 - 175}{3} = \frac{-75}{3} = -25 \, \text{meters per second}.
\]

Thus, the object's height after 10 seconds is 0 meters, and the rate of change between 5 seconds and 8 seconds is -25 meters per second.