Blaine students learn about quadratic equations

Blaine senior Paul Moore pulls the lanyard on a medieval catapult called a trebuchet. Moore and other students in Mike Dahl’s Advanced Algebra class are analyzing quadratic equations to model real-world data of launched objects. The trebuchet has a 360-pound counterweight and threw a 5-pound medicine ball 80 yards.

Blaine sophomores Dylan Blake, l, and Aaron Steelquist and junior Armando Gomez shoot off a projectile with a funnelator as their math teacher Mike Dahl, r, watches. The trajectory describes a parabola which Dahl’s class analyzes with advanced algebra.