Dot Physics

Georgia Tech is playing Miami (not the real Miami, the other one Miami Florida). Right after a commercial, the camera shows this sign from a student (or just person) at the game:

(Sorry if the image isn’t that great.) I had to pause the game and take a closer look at this sign. I am not sure I get it. In case you can’t see, the sign shows two players and the trajectory of a ball (clearly labeled x and y axes). The equations are:

So, why am I confused?

• Clearly they (he or she) is calling the x-direction the same as the horizontal direction.
• The student wrote the kinematics equations for the horizontal motion, not the vertical.
• The student left a (for the acceleration) in there. Yes, a football in the air will have a horizontal acceleration due to air resistance. However, wouldn’t the vertical acceleration from the gravitational force be more significant?
• One more small point (yes, I know these are all small points – but this is just what I do): In the first two equations, the student wrote x(t) and v(t). The last equation is not written that format. Not really wrong, just odd.

So, if indeed this is a student from Georgia Tech, would he/she have written this correctly? I suspect that it is written incorrectly on purpose. Either this is actually a Miama (FL) student disguised like a Georgia Tech student (to make GT look bad), or it is some secret code.

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