Tossing a Ball
- Author:
- W. Gary Martin
Gabby Railey tosses a ball off the top of Haley Center. From physics, we know that the function h(t)=-16t2+v0t+h0 gives us the height of a falling object (in feet) at a given time in seconds, where v0 is the initial velocity of the object and h0 is the initial height.
The app below shows this situation in three different ways:
- In the left pane, slider t shows the elapsed time. B shows the path of the ball as it drops.
- In the middle pane, the graph of h(t) is shown. Slider v0 gives the initial velocity, and the initial height can be adjusted by dragging point h0.
- The left pane shows a table of values for t and h(t).
- Tap "Toss Ball" to begin a simulation of the ball toss. To restart the simulation, tap "t=0." You can also hit "Stop" to pause the simulation.
- What maximum height does the ball reach? How can you tell that from the information in each of the three panes?
- At what time does the ball hit the ground? How can you tell that from the information in each of the three panes?
- How does changing h0 and v0 change your answers?