Activity 28* Freely Falling Bodies

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parabolas

Activity 28* Freely Falling Bodies NanrM

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In this lesson we see bow your knowledge ofgrt&bs and parabolas can be used t o solve word problems. . . ' . ' . . A baseball player throwing a ball firom the outfield to third base, a basketball player shooting a firee throw, and a volleyball player serving the ball are all examples of freely foiling bodies. For these problems, tine vertical position of the object is given by the following quadratic equation! 5 - -Q3gT2 + v0T+ % In this equation: the variable S represents the position above ground level the variable 7* is the time in seconds v0 is the initial speed of the ball 50 is the initial position of the ball g is the force of gravity, which is 9.8 m/s2.

The Free Throw Problem Suppose a basketball player shoots a free throw and puts the ball in play under these conditions: theJball is released at 2 m above the floor the crowd is screaming the basket is 3 m above the floor the ball has an initial speed of 6 m/s 1 Write an equation for this problem in terms of x and y, where y represents position and x represents time , 2. Set the range and graph the equation you created in Exercise 1. Use the trace feature to help you determine how high the ball is above the floor after 0.5 seconds. • 3 If a player is an excellent shooter, how much time will it take for the ball to travel firom the player's fingertips to the rim of the basket? CHlnte Use the trace function.") ,

ACTIVITY 28