Calculus 2 - Special Problem Goat on a Rope

You may work in groups of up to 3 people, use textbooks, calculators, and teachers. No other resources are allowed. Turn in one set of solutions per group. Due: Friday, December 3, 2010 1. Given an equilateral triangle barn, and the rope length, R, is equal to the semiperimeter of the barn: (a) Find the exact grazing area in terms of R if the goat is staked to a vertex. Carefully construct the region and show your work. (We did this in class.) (b) Find the exact grazing area in terms of R if the goat is staked to a midpoint of one side. Carefully construct the region and show your work. (This is in the packet.) (c) Use calculus to find where along a side of the triangle the goat should be staked to have the maximum grazing area. 2. Repeat problem 1 parts (a) & (b) for the following polygons: (a) square (b) regular pentagon (c) regular hexagon 3. Use your discoveries above to answer the following. You may need to investigate polygons with more sides than required above. (a) Describe any pattern in the grazing areas for staking the goat to a vertex for various regular polygons. (b) Describe any pattern in the grazing areas for staking the goat to a midpoint of one side for various regular polygons (c) What happens to the grazing area in each situation (a) and (b) as the number of sides of the barn n get larger? Can you predict the grazing area as n ! " in each case? 4. Billy Goat is tied to a circular barn by a rope of length R that is half the circumference of the barn. We want to find the available grazing area by doing the following: (a) A rope is wound around a circle and then unwound while being held taut. The curve traced by the point P at the end of the string is called the involute of the circle. If the circle has radius r and center O and the initial position of P is (r,0), and if the parameter ! is chosen as in the figure shown, show that the parametric equations of the involute are
x = r (cos ! + ! sin ! ) y = r (sin ! " ! cos ! )

(b) Use the previous part to work out the grazing area in terms of the barn radius r. (c) Use your results of the previous part to find the grazing area in terms of the rope length R.