Calculus I, Section 3.

9, #16
Related Rates

At noon, ship A is 150 km west of ship B. Ship A is sailing east at 35 km/h and ship B is sailing north at
25 km/h. How fast is the distance between the ships changing at 4:00 pm?1

At right is a sketch of the situation at noon. We’ll

let A0 be the position of ship A at noon, and B0 be N
the position of ship B at noon. (This picture is only
valid at noon!)

b b
A0 B0
150 km

As time moves forward, A moves east at 35 km/h. Let x = distance traveled by A at time t. Similarly, B
moves north at 25 km/h. Let y = distance traveled by B at time t.

At right is a new sketch showing the situation at any-

time after noon. N
B
y

b
x b
A0 A B0

150 km

dy
We know x is increasing at 35 km/h, so dxdt = 35. Likewise, y is increasing at 25 km/h, so dt = 25. Since A
has sailed east, the remaining distance to B0 is 150 − x.

At right is an updated sketch where we’ve called the

distance between the ships D. N
B
D
y

b
x 150 − x b
A0 A B0

150 km

dD
So we want dt at 4:00pm; this corresponds to t = 4.
Now △AB0 B is a right triangle, so we’ll apply the Pythagorean Theorem

D2 = (150 − x)2 + y 2

or
q
2
 √ 
D= (150 − x) + y 2 Since D is a length, we know D ≥ 0 and D2 = D.

1 Stewart, Calculus, Early Transcendentals, p. 249, #16.

Continued =⇒
Calculus I
Related Rates

dD
We could compute dt from this, but it will be simpler to use
2
D2 = (150 − x) + y 2

We differentiate with respect to t,

d  2 d h i d  2
D = (150 − x)2 + y
dt dt dt
dD dx dy
2D · = 2 (150 − x) (−1) · + 2y ·
dt dt dt
dD dx dy
D = − (150 − x) +y
dt dt dt

At t = 4,

x = 4 · 35 = 140
y = 4 · 25 = 100

and we use these values to find D

q
2 2
D = (150 − 140) + (100)
p
= 102 + 1002
p
= 10,100

dD
Finally, we substitute and solve for dt .

dD dx dy
D = − (150 − x) +y
dt dt dt
p dD
10,100 = − (150 − 140) · 35 + 100 · 25
dt
dD −350 + 2500
= √
dt 10,100
≈ 21.39

Thus, at 4:00pm, the distance between the ships is increasing at the rate of about 21.39 km/h.