When an archer shoots an arrow, the arrow follows a parabolic path through the air. That parabola can be represented by a quadratic function, where x represents
the arrow's horizontal distance from the archer, and y represents the arrow's height
above the ground.
1. Philip releases an arrow from a shoulder height of 4 ft.
The arrow reaches a maximum height of 40 ft before
it begins to fall. It lands on the ground about 160 ft
away from where he is standing. Philip models this
situation with a quadratic function. What is a zero of
the function? What is the y-intercept of the graph
of the function? Construct a rough graph of the situation based on your
findings, where y represents the vertical height, in feet, and x represents the
horizontal distance, in feet.