Question

WORTH 19 POINTS!!

Answer 1

You have to make a cos graph that starts its minimum and of -2, has an amplitude of 10, a period of 10 and  a maximum of 18.
I decided to use a cos graph since cos graphs start at their minimum or maximum unlike a sine graph that starts halfway between the minimum and maximum.  You also know the amplitude has to be 10 since 18+2=20 and 20/2=10.  We were also told that the water wheel completels a rotation every 10 minutes which means the period is 10 minutes.

lets start of with a regular cos(x) graph.  This starts on its maximum instead of minimum so we have to multiply it by -1 to get -cos(x) which does start on its minimum.

-cos(x) has an amplitude of 1 instead of 10, to fix that we multiply it by 10 to get -10cos(x) which has an amplitude of 10.
 
-10cos(x) has a period of 2π instead of 10, to fix this we multiply the x by 2π/10 to get -10cos((π/5)x) which now has a period of 10.

-10cos((π/5)x) has a minimum of -10 and maximum of 10 instead of a minimum of -2 and maximum of 18, to fix this we add 8 to -10cos((π/5)x) to get -10cos((π/5)x)+8 which does have a minimum of -2 and maximum of 18.

Therefore the answer is y=-10cos((π/5)x)+8. x being time in minutes and and y being the height in feet.  

I hope this helps.  Let me know if anything is unclear.