A toy company is releasing a new catapult for water balloons that launches them at 9.8 meters per second from a stand 0.6 meters tall. The function f(x) = −4.9x2 + 9.8x + 0.6 describes the path of the water balloon, where x is the amount of time since the launch.

The balloon’s height cannot be below the ground, so the minimum reasonable height is 0 meters. The parabola reaches its maximum at x = −9.8 ÷ (2 × −4.9) = 1 second, when its height is −4.9(1)² + 9.8(1) + 0.6 = 5.5 meters. Therefore, the reasonable range is 0 ≤ y ≤ 5.5, which is choice C.

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