Question

A golf ball is hit off a tee toward the green. The height of the ball is modeled by the function h(t) = −16t2 + 96t, where t equals the time in seconds and h(t) represents the height of the ball at time t seconds. What is the axis of symmetry, and what does it represent? t = 3; It takes the ball 3 seconds to reach the maximum height and 6 seconds to fall back to the ground. t = 3; It takes the ball 3 seconds to reach the maximum height and 3 seconds to fall back to the ground. t = 6; It takes the ball 6 seconds to reach the maximum height and 3 seconds to fall back to the ground. t = 6; It takes the ball 6 seconds to reach the maximum height and 6 seconds to fall back to the ground.

Answer 1

Answer:

t = 3; It takes the ball 3 seconds to reach the maximum height and 6 seconds to fall back to the ground.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the axis of symmetry, we need to find the vertex by turning this equation into vertex form (this is y = a(x - c)² + d where (c, d) is the vertex). To do this, we can use the "completing the square" strategy.

h(t) = -16t² + 96t

= -16(t² - 6t)

= -16(t² - 6t + 9) - (-16) * 9

= -16(t - 3)² + 144

Therefore, we know that the vertex is (3, 144) so the axis of symmetry is t = 3. Since the coefficient of the squared term, -16, is negative, it means that the vertex is the maximum. We know that it takes the golf ball 3 seconds to reach the maximum height (since the t value of the vertex is 3) and because the vertex is on the axis of symmetry, it would take 3 more seconds for the ball to fall to the ground, therefore it takes 3 + 3 = 6 seconds to fall to the ground. The final answer is "t = 3; It takes the ball 3 seconds to reach the maximum height and 6 seconds to fall back to the ground.".