4.1 Related Rates Greg Kelly, Hanford High School, Richland, Washington

Steps for Related Rates Problems: 1. Draw a picture (sketch). 2. Write down known information. 3. Write down what you are looking for. 4. Write an equation to relate the variables. 5. Differentiate both sides with respect to t. 6. Evaluate.

Hot Air Balloon Problem: Given: How fast is the balloon rising? Find

First, a review problem: Consider a sphere of radius 10cm. If the radius changes 0.1cm (a very small amount) how much does the volume change? The volume would change by approximately.

Now, suppose that the radius is changing at an instantaneous rate of 0.1 cm/sec. (Possible if the sphere is a soap bubble or a balloon.) The sphere is growing at a rate of. Note: This is an exact answer, not an approximation like we got with the differential problems.

Hot Air Balloon Problem: Given: How fast is the balloon rising? Find

B A Truck Problem: Truck A travels east at 40 mi/hr. Truck B travels north at 30 mi/hr. How fast is the distance between the trucks changing 6 minutes later?

B A Truck Problem: How fast is the distance between the trucks changing 6 minutes later? Truck A travels east at 40 mi/hr. Truck B travels north at 30 mi/hr. 

Water is draining from a cylindrical tank at 3 liters/second. How fast is the surface dropping? Find ( r is a constant.) (We need a formula to relate V and h. )

Suppose that an inflating balloon is spherical in shape, and its radius is changing at the rate of 3 centimeters per second. At what rate is the volume changing when the radius is 10 centimeters?

A baseball diamond is 90 feet square, and the pitcher's mound is at the center of the square. If a pitcher throws a baseball at 100 miles per hour, how fast is the distance between the ball and first base changing as the ball crosses home plate?

A ladder 10 feet long is resting against a wall. If the bottom of the ladder is sliding away from the wall at a rate of 1 foot per second, how fast is the top of the ladder moving down when the bottom of the ladder is 8 feet from the wall?

A television camera is position 4000 ft from the base of a rocket launching pad. The angle of elevation of the camera has to change at the correct rate in order to keep the rocket in sight. Also, the mechanism for focusing the camera has to take into account the increasing distance from the camera to the rising rocket. Let’s assume the rocket rises vertically and its speed is 600 ft/s when it has risen 3000 ft. How fast is the distance from the television camera to the rocket changing at that moment? If the television camera is always kept aimed at the rocket, how fast is the camera’s angle of elevation changing at that same moment