AP Calculus Notes Chapter 2 Section K 10/20/10-10/22/10

Related Rates
Use implicit differentiation to find the rates of change of two or more variables that are changing with
respect to time.
1. Draw a diagram/picture of the situation given in the problem.
2. Determine the rate of change that you are trying to find.
3. Assign variables only to things in the problem that are changing whose rates are either given or
asked for.
4. Assign constants only to things in the problem that are not changing.
5. Write an equation that relates the two or more variables that are changing with respect to time.
6. Differentiate the equation with respect to time.
7. Solve for the rate of change by plugging in the known information given.
8. If any information is missing, return to the original equation from step 5 to find it.

Example: ___________ is walking away from a point at a rate of ______ feet/sec. ____________ is
walking towards that point in a perpendicular path and maintains a distance of ____ feet away from
__________.

a)Find __________’s rate when __________ is 9 feet away from the point.

b) Find __________’s rate when __________ is 12 feet away from the point.
Example: The height of a triangle is decreasing at a rate of 1 cm/min while the area of the triangle is
increasing at a rate of 2 /min. At what rate is the base of the triangle changing when the height is
10 cm and the area is 100 ?

Example: A rocket, rising vertically, is tracked by a radar station that is on the ground 5 miles from the
launchpad. How fast is the rocket rising when it is 4 miles high and its distance from the radar station
is increasing at a rate of 2000 miles /hour?
Example: A tank in the shape of a right circular cone is being filled with water at the rate of
ft /min. It also has a small leak in the bottom that is leaking at a rate of 1 ft /min. The tank has a
height of 30 feet and a radius of 15 feet. In order to collect the water that leaks out of the tank, a barrel
in the shape of a right circular cylinder is placed below the leak. The barrel has a height of 5 feet and a
radius of 3 feet.

a) Write an expression for the rate of change of the depth of the water at the center of the cone in
terms of the depth.

b) Find the rate of change of the depth of the water in the cylinder.
Example: Oil is leaking from a pipeline on the surface of a lake and forms an oil slick whose volume
increases at a constant rate of 200 cubic centimeters per minute. The oil slick takes the form of a right
circular cylinder with both its radius and height changing with time. At the instant when the radius of
the oil slick is 50 centimeters and the height is 0.2 centimeters, the radius is increasing at the rate of 2.5
centimeters per minute. At this instant, what is the rate of change of the height of the oil slick with
respect to time?

Example: A snowball in the shape of a sphere is melting so that its volume is decreasing at a rate of 5
cubic inches per minute. At the instant when the radius of the snowball is 4 inches, what is the rate of
change of the surface area of the snowball?
Example: A point is moving along a curve so that the x-coordinate is increasing at a rate of 3 units per
second. At what rate is the y-coordinate changing when .

Example: A camera on the ground 300 meters away from the launchpad records a hot air balloon rising
at a rate of 10 meters/sec. How fast is the camera’s angle of elevation changing when the hot air
balloon is 400 meters high?

Homework – Due Monday 10/25/10

Problem Set 24
Handout Problems #1-28 all