Jacob’s classroom is on the second floor of his high school building. He’s sitting at his desk and trying to solve a quadratic equation. Every time he makes a mistake, he crumples a piece of paper and attempts to throw it in the trash can. One time, however, he accidentally throws the ball of paper out the window. The quadratic expression -16t2 − 8t + 24, where t is the time (in seconds), models the height (in feet) of the crumpled ball of paper after passing through the open window at t = 0.

Part A. In the expression -16t2 − 8t + 24, what does the constant term represent?

Part B. Write the quadratic expression -16t2 − 8t + 24 in factored form.

Part C. Determine the zeros of the expression -16t2 – 8t + 24.

Part D. What do the zeros represent in the context of the situation for reasonable answers?