Quadratic Equations and Functions

Read the paragraph below and summarize the paragraph into one sentence that incorporates who/what/when/where/why. Be Creative!

We are surrounded by evidence that the world is profoundly mathematical. After turning a somersault, a diver's path can be modeled by a quadratic function, (x) = ax2 + bx + c, as can the path of a football tossed from quarterback to receiver or the path of a flipped coin. Even if you throw an object directly upward, although its path is straight and vertical, its changing height over time is described by a quadratic function. And tailgaters beware: whether you're driving a car, a motorcycle, or a truck on dry or wet roads, an array of quadratic functions that model your required stopping distances at various speeds are available to help you become a safer driver.

Here's where you'll find these applications:

The quadratic functions surrounding our long history of throwing things appear throughout the chapter, including Example 5 in Section 3.1 and Example 4 in Section 3.6. Tailgaters should pay close attention to the Section 3.6 opener, Exercises 77-78 and 92-93 in Exercise Set 3.6, and Exercise 75 in the Chapter Review Exercises.