Graphs and Quadratic Equations?

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Question:

A ball is dropped from a height of $18$ metres. The quadratic equation $h = -2t^2 + 18$ gives you the height, $h$ metres, of the ball, after $t$ seconds.

After how many seconds does the ball hit the ground?

What I've tried so far: I have tried rearranging the equation but that just got me to a dead end. I was thinking of tried to complete the square or factorising but I am not entirely sure. Thanks for your help.

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There are 2 best solutions below

6
On

Hint: we're given a polynomial of degree 2, with a negative constant infront of the t^2 term. What would a graph of this function look like?

0
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Hint: the ball hits the ground means that $h=0$, how does this simplify our equation?