A projectile is launched from a height of 12 feet and follows a parabolic trajectory. After 4 seconds, the projectile reaches a maximum height of 60 feet. If all the experiments that followed met or exceeded this path, which quadratic inequality in standard form contains the points in the later experiments?

The projectile’s path has vertex (4, 60), so write it as y = a(x − 4)² + 60. Since it starts at (0, 12), 12 = 16a + 60, giving a = −3; expanding gives y = −3x² + 24x + 12. Later experiments met or exceeded this path, so their points satisfy y ≥ −3x² + 24x + 12, which is choice C.

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