# Math Help - Roller coaster

1. ## Roller coaster

find the value of a.

we know the height of the first curve and we know the second curve is at (40,0), we also know their equations. at what point do they meet, so it would form a roller coaster??

the first step is to make the equations equal to each other. AND THE REST I HAVE NO IDEA....

2. Originally Posted by hossein
find the value of a.

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Sahar/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg[/IMG]http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/9483/95q8tmpbr8.jpg
here is a link which shows the GRAPH and the quations
we know the height of the first curve and we know the second curve is at (40,0), we also know their equations. at what point do they meet, so it would form a roller coaster??

the first step is to make the equations equal to each other. AND THE REST I HAVE NO IDEA....
as you can see, the images don't work. make them as attachments if you're having trouble putting them in the body

3. does it work NOW?

4. Originally Posted by hossein
find the value of a.

we know the height of the first curve and we know the second curve is at (40,0), we also know their equations. at what point do they meet, so it would form a roller coaster??

the first step is to make the equations equal to each other. AND THE REST I HAVE NO IDEA....
At the point where they meet you have:

$
100-\frac{x^2}{4}=a(x-40)^2
$

Rearrange this into a common or garden quadratic, and solve for x in terms of a.

Then you also want the slopes at the point of intersection to be equal, how
you do this depend on what you know.

RonL