Problema Solution
If a stone is tossed from the top of a 290 meter building, the height of the stone as a function of time is given by h(t) = -9.8t2 – 10t + 290, where t is in seconds, and height is in meters. After how many seconds will the stone hit the ground? Round to the nearest hundredth’s place; include units in your answer.
Answer provided by our tutors
h(t) = -9.8t^2 - 10t + 290
Set h(t) to zero (since when height = 0, it'll hit the ground):
0 = -9.8t^2 - 10t + 290
We apply the "quadratic formula".
t = {-5.973915726623492, 4.953507563358185}
We can toss out the negative solution leaving:
t = 4.953507563358185 seconds.