What is the Solution to the Differentiation Problem for a Descending Plane?

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At time t = 0 and position s = 0 a plane starts its descent into an airfield. From this point, the distance s in km as a function of time t in hours is given by;

s = 300 + 400t - 200t^3

The inital velocity I have calculated to be 300 km/hr and the acceleration after 1/2 hr is 475 km/hr2. I am having problems with the last question;

c) the time to when the velocity is zero and the distance traveled in that time?
 
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So, what's the equation for velocity? Set it equal to zero and solve for t.
 
I did this and came out with 0 = 400 - 600t^2

I had difficulty transposing this for t as I kept getting discrepencies. Once I have t I can do the rest, I am not even sure if the above equation is correct for velocity.
 
1875 said:
I had difficulty transposing this for t as I kept getting discrepencies

What do you mean?

1875 said:
I am not even sure if the above equation is correct for velocity

It is.
 
I came out with t = -400/600^2 but I wasnt confident with the number this came out to.
 
Check your algebra. The solution of 0 = 400 - 600t2 is not t = - 400/6002.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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