These are equations for a ball thrown vertically into the air at 5.0 m/s. Position is purple, velocity is green, and acceleration is blue. The x-axis is time. Ignore the bits where the parabola lies below the x-axis; they're not relevant for this example.

The first few Khan Academy videos on physics probably explain this way better than I can.

I loved KA when I had a computer but it sucks on a phone.

When I had a computer I had tons of badges and ****.

Then they changed from stars to leaves or something and my computer died.

I did not expect things to launch off like this based on a one sentence blurb of mine that was about 1 minute or 2 of real time. Thanks for taking such an interest, as well as for mentioning Khan Academy it's a useful tool for the individual trying to teach themselves, and their are plenty of ways online to do it in addition.

Anyway, to see if I can add anything here, position of an object is usually always nonzero if you add in the Earth's rotation. I forgot about the forces of gravity when talking about the parked car example so thanks for reminding me about that, kind of a lot more factors of physics to consider than I realized at first, without even mentioning the different subsets.

what if you're on the moon and you throw the ball

Since gravity is weaker, would the peak last longer?

Glad you mentioned it!

Yeah, reference frame is important.

No, you can't measure the peak as lasting for any length of time in either case.

I guess that makes sense. So if you graphed the ball being thrown on Earth and the one on the moon, both would just be different shaped parabolas?

Can’t? Or is it just not practical for basic physics?

Yep! It's just a matter of a different number for the strength of the gravitational field. The parabolic shape of the graph results because acceleration is constant.

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/...nsional-motion

That's a pretty good overview if you want to get a deeper sense of what's going on. (Admittedly I haven't watched it in years, but iirc he does a good job of explaining everything clearly without dumbing it down.) No calculus required.

EDIT:
In terms of the model of Newtonian physics, you can't, as in it's impossible.

This has been really interesting and informative. You’re a really smart dude.

Pet Sounds really is pretty damn smart but this is all high school level physics.
Are US schools really so ****ty that this is all news for you?