A stunt man drops from the top of a 50 foot elevator shaft. His height above ground is determined by the equation h=-16(t)(t)+50. At the moment the stunt man begins to drop, an elevator goes up so that its height above ground is determined by the equation h=34t. After how many seconds will the stunt man land on top of the elevator.

I solved using the quadratic equation and obtained an answer of 3.125 seconds or t=-1...is this correct? Thanks!

To find the time at which the stunt man lands on top of the elevator, you need to find when their heights above the ground are equal.

The height of the stunt man is given by the equation h = -16t^2 + 50.
The height of the elevator is given by the equation h = 34t.

Setting the two equations equal to each other:

-16t^2 + 50 = 34t

This is a quadratic equation which can be solved by setting it equal to zero:

-16t^2 + 34t - 50 = 0

Now you can apply the quadratic formula to find the values of t. The quadratic formula is:

t = (-b ± √(b^2 - 4ac)) / (2a)

In this case, a = -16, b = 34, c = -50.

Substituting these values into the quadratic formula:

t = (-34 ± √(34^2 - 4(-16)(-50))) / (2(-16))

Simplifying:

t = (-34 ± √(1156 - 3200)) / (-32)
t = (-34 ± √(-2044)) / (-32)

At this point, we can see that the term inside the square root is negative (-2044), which means the quadratic equation has no real solutions. Therefore, there is no real time at which the stunt man lands on top of the elevator.

Hence, the answer is that the stunt man will not land on top of the elevator.

As I said at 6:42 pm,

check your signs. I get -3.125 or +1

Naturally, the negative answer may be disregarded.