a family is 500 ft above the ground in the basket of a hot air balloon and ascending at the consistent rate shown. At that height someone accidentally drops a penny out of the balloon.

We know that the balloon ascends at the same constant rate, that means that after the penny drop is:
[tex]h_b(t)=10t+500[/tex]this comes from the fact that the initial height is 500 ft and that for each second the balloon ascends 10 feet.