A hot-air balloon left the ground rising at 4 ft per second. 10 seconds later, Victoria through a ball straight up to her friend Colleen in the balloon. At what speed did she throw the ball if it just made it to Colleen?
The height of the ball is given by: .\(\displaystyle h \:=\:v_ot - 16t^2\)
. . where \(\displaystyle v_o\) is the initial speed of the ball.
10 seconds later, Colleen is 40 feet above the ground.
Since the ball just makes it to Colleen, the maximum height of the ball is 40 feet.
The maximum height occurs at the vertex of the parabolic function.
\(\displaystyle \text{The vertex is at: }\:t = \frac{\text{-}b}{2a},\,\text{ where }b = v_o\,\text{ and }\,a = \text{-}16\)
\(\displaystyle \text{Maximum height occurs at: }\:t \:=\:\frac{\text{-}v_o}{2(\text{-}16)} \:=\:\frac{v_o}{32}\text{ seconds.}\)
\(\displaystyle \text{Hence, maximum height is: }\:h \:=\:v_o\left(\frac{v_o}{32}\right) - 16\left(\frac{v_o}{32}\right)^2 \:=\:\frac{v_o^2}{64}\text{ feet.}\)
\(\displaystyle \text{We have: }\:\frac{v_o^2}{64} \:=\:40 \quad\Rightarrow\quad v_o \:=\:64\cdot40 \quad\Rightarrow\quad v \:=\:8\sqrt{40}\)
\(\displaystyle \text{Therefore, the ball should be thrown at: }\:50.59644256 \;\approx\;50.596\text{ ft/sec}\)
Needs to be rounded off at three decimal places.
Since it took about 1 second to get to Colleen it rose another 4 feet.
So in order to reach Colleen the ball must be thrown at a speed of 54.596 feet per second.
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NOTE: from the last problem 64.7 was used how was that figure out? 64.7 + 5 = 69.7. The answer to the original problem i started with was 69.692 feet per second in order to reach Colleen.