Answer:
How long is the [shirt] in the air? 3 seconds
How many seconds after launching is the t-shirt at 17 feet? 0.25 seconds
Step-by-step explanation:
Formula to represent the shirt's flight path (given): , where
is the height of the shirt,
is the initial velocity of the shirt,
is the shirt's starting height, and
is elapsed time since launch.
The function forms a parabola concave down. Since the shirt is caught at 17 feet, we want to second x-coordinate of a point with a y-coordinate of 17 that the function passes through. This is because the shirt was caught going down, not up.
Therefore, let :
.
The second x-coordinate is the larger of the two and therefore the shirt was in the air for 3 seconds.
However, the first time the shirt reaches a height of 17 feet is on its way up, which occurs at 1/4 or 0.25 seconds (the first x-coordinate). Therefore, the t-shirt reached a height of 17 feet 0.25 seconds after launching.