PSSA - Pennsylvania System of School Assessment

Edward Bujak

When a cannonball is shot into the air, its height, in feet, during the flight is given by the function hHtL = 160 + 480 t - 16 t2 where
hHtL is the height in seconds. What is the maximum height of the cannonball?

A 15 feet
B 160 feet
C 3,744 feet
D 3,760 feet

Define a function:

h@t_D := 160 + 480 t - 16 t2 ;

Factor @h@tDD

- 16 I- 10 - 30 t + t2 M

Factoring does not tell us much.

When the cannon was fired, what was the height? What's the height at time, t=0.

h@0D

160

Well, when does the cannonball hit that same height, h=160 feet, again?

zeros = Solve @h@tD Š 160, tD

88t ® 0<, 8t ® 30<<

The cannonball hits the initial height (160 feet) at time t=0 seconds and t=30 seconds.
It is logical that the cannonball reaches its maximum height at half the time t=15 seconds, since a parabola is symmetric.

h@15D

3760

So the maximum height of the cannonball is 3,760 feet, reached at time 15 seconds (after firing).

Graphically:
2 PSSA.20090224.D.Parabola,Quadratic,Vertex,Maximum.nb

Graphically:

parabolaCannonballShotPlot =
Plot@8h@tD, h@0D, h@15D< , 8t, - 1, 32<, AxesLabel ® 8"t @secD", "hHtL @feetD"<,
PlotLabel ® "Cannonball - Height vs Time", PlotStyle ® 8Blue, Dashed, Dashed<D

Cannonball - Height vs Time

hHtL @feetD

3000

2000

1000

t @secD
5 10 15 20 25 30

The blue parabolic curve is the trajectory of the cannonball, height vs time. The dashed horizontal lines represent the minimum
height and the maximum height of the cannonball.

pointsOnPlot = ListPlot@880, h@0D<, 815, h@15D<, 830, h@30D<<,

PlotStyle ® 8PointSize@0.03D, Pink<D;

Show@parabolaCannonballShotPlot , pointsOnPlot D

Cannonball - Height vs Time

hHtL @feetD

3000

2000

1000

t @secD
5 10 15 20 25 30

There are other Mathematica functions that can be utilized.

FindMaximum@h@tD, 8t, 5<D

83760., 8t ® 15.<<

If we do not have these tools, or do not know about them then we can resort to traditional Calculus means: that maximum or
minimum occur when the derivative is set equal to 0.
 PSSA.20090224.D.Parabola,Quadratic,Vertex,Maximum.nb 3

If we do not have these tools, or do not know about them then we can resort to traditional Calculus means: that maximum or
minimum occur when the derivative is set equal to 0.

h '@tD

480 - 32 t

Solve@h '@tD Š 0D

88t ® 15<<

So the maximum is at time, t=15 seconds, and height, h(t=15 seconds)

h@15D

3760