It will take 5 seconds for the waste to hit the ground.
We know that the bird releases the waste from a height of 400ft, so the height equation is:
[tex]h(t) = -16t^2 + 400[/tex]
The waste will hit the ground when its height is equal to zero, so we just need to solve the quadratic equation:
[tex]h(t) = 0 = -16t^2 + 400\\\\16t^2 = 400\\\\t^2 = 400/16 = 25\\\\[/tex]
Now we can apply the square root in both sides:
[tex]t = \sqrt{25} = 5[/tex]
It will take 5 seconds for the waste to hit the ground.
If you want to learn more about quadratic equations:
https://brainly.com/question/1214333
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