The equation y = (-16t-2) (t-1) represents the height in feet of a beach ball thrown by a child as a function of time, t, in seconds.

1. Find the zeros of the function. Explain or show your reasoning.

2. What do the zeros tell us in this situation? Are both zeros meaningful?

y = (-16t-2) (t-1)

To find the zeros, let's set y = 0 and separate these two expressions in parenthesis with the zero product property.

0 = - 16t-2

0 = t-1

Now let's solve for t and get two zeros.

0 = - 16t-2

2 = - 16t

t = - 1/8

0 = t-1

t = 1

1. Our two zeros are t = - 1/8 and t = 1.

2. The two zeros are not both meaningful! Remember that this is modeling time, and we don't really care about - 1/8 seconds. We don't need that negative time measurement, so we just want to know what's happening at 1 second. And at one second, the ball is on the ground. Great, so we know that height of ball = 0 after 1 second.