Three students are shooting wads of paper with a rubber band, aiming for a trash can in the front of the room. The height of each student’s paper wad in feet is given as a function of the time in seconds. Which student’s paper wad flies the highest?[br]• The path of Alejandro’s paper wad is modeled by the equation [math]f(x) = –x^2 + 2x + 7[/math].[br]• Melissa’s paper wad is estimated to reach the heights shown in the table below.[br] [math]\ \ \ \ \ x \ \ \ 0 \ \ \ 2 \ \ \ 3 \ \ \ 4[/math] [br] [math]\ \ \ \ \ y \ \ \ 3 \ \ \ 6 \ \ \ 7 \ \ \ 6[/math][br]• After [math]3[/math] seconds, Connor’s paper wad achieves a maximum height of [math]6.5[/math] feet above the floor.

[list=1][br][*]Determine if each function represents a quadratic.[br][/*][*]Verify that the extremum for each function is the maximum value of each function.[br][/*][*]Determine the vertex of each function.[br][/*][*]Use the vertices to determine whose paper wad goes the highest.[br][/*][/list][br][br]This applet is provided by Walch Education as supplemental material for their mathematics programs. Visit [url=http://www.walch.com/]www.walch.com[/url] for more information.