Investigate means to search for something or look in to something
The ball's vertical velocity at the time it just passes over the goal is 0 m/s. Its initial vertical velocity is unknown and we denote it by 
, where 
here is the ball's initial speed. Vertically, the only force acting on the ball is gravity, which attributes a downward acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. We expect the maximum height achieved by the ball to be 2.4 m, so we can find the initial speed by solving
-- If the field were inclined to the surface, then it would have
some component parallel to the surface.
-- Then, since we're talking about a conductor, the charges
on the object would move in response to that component
of the field, until there was no longer any component of the
field trying to move them.
