Mathematics 53

2nd Semester, A.Y. 2014-2015

Q3, R3, W8, X8

Exercises 10 - Applications of the Derivative II

I. Rectilinear Motion

1. A particle is moving along a horizontal line according to the position function

s(t) = 2t3 + 6t2 + 4,
where s is measured in meters and t in seconds.
(a) Determine if the particle if speeding up or slowing down on the interval (1, 2).
(b) Find the speed of the particle at the time when its acceleration is 24 m/s2 .
(c) When did the particle change direction?
2. Row drops his ring from the rooftop of Building I while Landow vertically throws upward
his bracelet from the rooftop of Building II. The equation of the ring and bracelet are
sr (t) = 320 5t2

sb (t) = 240 + 40t 5t2

respectively. Assume sr and sb are directed distances in meters measured from the ground
and t is in seconds. (Ignore air resistance, weight of objects, and the height of Row and
Landow.)
(a) At what time t will the ring and the bracelet be at the same vertical distance from the
ground?
(b) What is the maximum height of the bracelet?
(c) Which will hit the ground first: the ring or the bracelet?
(d) Which has greater speed at time t = 7 seconds: the ring or the bracelet?
3. Suppose an ant is walking back and forth on a straight wire. Its position relative to the
center of the wire after t seconds is
s(t) = t3 3t2 9t 3.
(a) When is the ant moving to the right?
(b) During which time intervals is the ant slowing down?
(c) Find the total distance traveled by the particle after 3 seconds.
4. Meia was standing on the roof of a tower on Mejere, a different planet. She threw a crystal
vertically upward near the edge and watched it fall to the ground. The position of the crystal
relative to the ground level, y meters, at time t seconds after it was thrown is given by the
function
y(t) = 4t2 + 20t + 56.
(a) What is the acceleration due to Mejeres gravity?
(b) What is the maximum height that the crystal will reach?
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(c) What is the speed of the crystal when it hits the ground?
5. Wanting to hit a bird situated 30 feet above me, I threw a rock vertically upwards. Neglecting external factors, the distance s (in feet) of the rock from its starting point at time t
(in seconds) is given by...
... s(t) = 6 + 32t 16t2 .
(a) Will I be able to hit the bird?
(b) What is the maximum height reached by the rock?
(c) How long will it take before it reaches the ground?
II. Related Rates plus Thirdies Tips. (Tip: Create a diagram, when necessary.)
1. A cube is expanding in such a way that the length of its diagonal is increasing at a rate of 5
inches per second. What is the rate of the increase of volume if the cubes edge is 4 inches
long? (Hint: Use the formula for the diagonal of a cube.)
2. A cylindrical pool with radius 10 meters is being filled with water. At what rate is the water
flowing into the pool when the water level is increasing at a rate of 0.1 meter per minute?
(Hint: Use the formula for the volume.)
3. Water is flowing at the rate of 10 cm3 /s into a glass container in the shape of an inverted
square pyramid whose altitude is twice the length of its base. What is the rate at which the
height of the water increases after 10 minutes? (Hint: Use the formula for the volume.)
4. A boat is pulled in by means of a winch on a dock 12 feet above the deck of the boat. The
winch pulls in rope at the rate 4 ft/s. Determine the speed of the boat when there are 13
feet of rope out. (Hint: Use the Pythagorean Theorem.)
5. At 10:00 AM, ship Trinidad is 16 miles due south of ship Victoria. Trinidad is sailing north
at the rate of 8 miles per hour while Victoria is sailing straight east. At 11:00 AM, Victoria
has covered a distance of 6 miles and it was observed that the two ships are separating at
a rate of 2 miles per hour. Determine the rate at which Victoria is sailing. (Hint: Use the
Pythagorean Theorem.)
6. A small funnel in the shape of an inverted right circular cone is being emptied of fluid at a
rate of 12 cubic centimeters per second. The height of the funnel is 20 cm, and the radius of
the top is 4 cm. How fast is the fluid level dropping when the fluid is 5 cm above the vertex
of the funnel? (Hint: Use similarity of triangles.)

7. An isosceles triangle with legs measuring 7 cm has a vertex angle increasing at a rate of 23
rad/min. Find how fast the third side is increasing when the angle is = 3 rad. (Hint: Use
the cosine law: c2 = a2 + b2 2ab cos ).
8. A kite 100 feet above the ground moves horizontally at a speed if 8 feet per second. At what
rate is the angle between the string and the horizontal decreasing when 200 feet of string
have been left out? (Hint: SOH-CAH-TOA)

9. A lonely boy is approaching a post that holds a lamp 15 feet above the ground. He is walking
at a speed of 4 feet per second. How fast is the tip of the shadow moving when he is 20 feet
away from the base of the lamp post? (Hint: Use similarity of triangles. If he is moving
towards the post, what happens to his shadow? What is his height? )
10. A ladder is resting against a vertical wall (used for somebodys walling). If the bottom of
the ladder slides away from the wall at a rate of 0.25 meters per second, how fast is the top
if the ladder sliding down the wall? (Hint: Use the Pythagorean Theorem.)
11. A triangle has a fixed base, b, of 3 cm, and a fixed leg, a, of 2 cm. Let be the included
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rad/s, how fast does the area
angle of sides a and b. If the angle increases at a rate of 16
of the triangle change when = 3 ? (Hint: Given two sides a, b and an included angle (in
SAS), the area is given by A = 21 ab sin .)
12. The equivalent resistance, R, of two resistors connected in parallel satisfy the equation
1
1
1
=
+
R
R1 R2
where R1 and R2 are the individual resistance of the two resistors. If R1 and R2 are increasing
at rates 8 (ohms) per second and 16 per second respectively, how fast is R increasing
when R1 = 4 and R2 = 12 ? (Hint: Use the equation given.)

13. A particle is moving along the curve y = x. As the particle passes through the point (4,2),
its x-coordinate increases at a rate of 3 cm/s. How fast is the distance of the particle from
the origin changing at this instant? (Hint: Use the Distance formula between two points.
You have an expression for y! )
14. A very handsome boy notices that his ultimate stalker is slowly approaching his location.
The boy responds by going on a path perpendicular to the path where his stalker is walking
on. The boy runs at a rate of 1 m/s while his stalker walks at a rate of 5 m/s towards
the boys original position. If during the first moment the boy sees his stalker, the distance
between them is 55 m. How fast is the distance between them changing when the boy runs
a distance of 8 m? (Hint: Use the Pythagorean Theorem.)
15. Oil from a ruptured tanker spreads in a circular pattern. If the radius of the circle increases
at the constant rate of 1.5 ft/s, how fast is the enclosed area increasing at the end of 2 hours?
(Hint: Use the formula for the area.)

Exercises from sample exams, books, and the internet rperez