How Long Does It Take for a Bullet Fired Upward to Fall Back Down?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a physics problem involving the motion of a bullet fired straight upward, described by a quadratic function of height over time. Participants are exploring how to determine the time it takes for the bullet to return to the ground after being fired.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Problem interpretation, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss setting up the problem using the given height function and question how to find the time when the bullet returns to the ground. There is mention of finding roots of the function and factoring as part of the approach.

Discussion Status

The discussion includes various attempts to solve the problem, with some participants suggesting methods like factoring to find the time when the bullet hits the ground. However, there is no explicit consensus on the final answer, and some participants express uncertainty about the realism of the calculated time.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that the problem may involve additional physics concepts, such as gravity, and there is an acknowledgment of the function provided for height as a starting point for their calculations.

acuraintegra9
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this seems more like a physics word problem, I am not even sure how to set this problem up to use it as a polynomial.

"A person holds a pistol straight upward and fires. The initial velocity of most bullets is around 1200 ft/sec. The hieght of the bullet is a function of time and is described by

h(t)= -16t^2+1200t

How long after the gun is fired, does the person have to get out of the way of the bullet falling from the sky??
"


not even sure what to do or how to set it up..
 
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find the roots and then you'll have 0 for when the gun is fired and the other root when the bullet falls to the ground, the time would be the number when the bullet would come back down (t )
 
so I factored out -16t and got (t - 75) so I get 75, so I guess the answer is 75, as in 75 seconds till the bullet comes back down?? I guess that seems realistic.

seems like this would be more involved with physics, like including gravity..PS THANKS FOR THE HELP
 
acuraintegra9 said:
so I factored out -16t and got (t - 75) so I get 75, so I guess the answer is 75, as in 75 seconds till the bullet comes back down?? I guess that seems realistic.

seems like this would be more involved with physics, like including gravity..PS THANKS FOR THE HELP

well they defined some function for you already so that's all you have to worry about
you're welcome :)
 

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