The distance of a golf ball from the hole can be represented by the right side of a parabola with vertex (−1, 8). The ball reaches the hole 1 second after it is hit, at time 0. What is the equation of the parabola, in vertex form, that represents the ball's distance from the hole, y, at time x

The required equation is:

Explanation:

Let us assume that the hole is at y = 0m, with x as the time.

From the question we have (-1s, 8m) as the vertex (here x being the time variable is supposed to be in seconds and y being the distance variable is supposed to be in meters)

At x = 1s, the ball gets to the hole, therefore we have point (1s, 0m)

We know that the vertex of the parabola y = ax² + bx + c is at

therefore we have:

We then have the following equations:

From the 3rd equation we have

1 X 2a = b.

Therefore we have:

We can simplify both equations and get:

The first equation now becomes:

With a, we can find the values of c and b.

Then the equation is:

c. 4 1/4 pounds