Question: To find the height of an overhead power line, you throw a ball straight upward. The ball passes the line on the way up after 0.80sec , and passes it again on the way down 1.5sec after it was tossed. What is the height of the power line? What is the initial speed of the ball?
What I know/What I don't get: I am having trouble finding the height of this power line with the given information and the information I conceptually know:
acceleration =-9.8 m/s^2
time of the first pass =0.8 sec
time of the second pass =1.5 sec
height of the power line=?
Initial Velocity = ?
Initial Speed = ?
I suspect I must use the formula $$x= x_0 + v_0 t + \frac{1}{2}at^2$$ but I don't quite know for sure what the two different times should be defined as or what values should I plug in. I asked myself these questions in advance. Should I set the formula equal to each other with the two different times plugged into either the left or right equation? Another thought I have is, should I subtract the two different times and solve from there? Please me know if I am asking the right questions and the content of this post is grammatically correct. If not please edit this post for the sake of the quality of the content.
Thanks to all that help in advance.
Disclaimer: I'm not looking for the answer, I am only looking for help to set me in the right direction to solve this problem on my own to further understand how to deal with a problem like this.