Related Rates

Devil’s Tower, Wyoming

Photo by Vickie Kelly, 1993 Greg Kelly, Hanford High School, Richland, Washington
Rate of Change

Derivative gives the slope of

curve.

Derivative as a way of determining

the rate of change of one variable
with respect to another variable.
Related Rates

Problems involving two or more variables that

are changing with respect to time t. We want to
find the rate at which some quantity is
changing by relating it to other quantities
whose rate of change are known.

Ex x2 + y2= 1

Differentiating with respect to t dx dy

2x  2y 0
dt dt

Related rates
Consider the equation:

𝑥 + 2 𝑦 =1

Suppose x changes with respect to time in a

𝑑𝑥
positive manner according to the rate = 5.
𝑑𝑡
What is the corresponding change in the rate of
y at the instance when x = 9?
Given x2 + 4y2 = 16
and dy/dt = 2 , find dx/dt
when x = 4.
Strategy for solving Related Rates Problems:
1. Draw the figure and label the variables and constants.
Use t for time. Take note which factors are affected by
change with respect to time. Assume all variables are
differentiable functions of t.

2.There might be constants that appear in the

problem. Identify which among the variables you
defined in the first step are associated with it. Write
down all of these numerical facts

3. Should the numerical fact be about the rate of change

of a variable, write this as a derivative with respect to time.
Be aware that rates of change can be positive or negative
, depending on whether this value increases or decreases
through time based on the given problem. Determine
what it is you need to find.
Strategy for solving Related Rates Problems:

4. Identify an equation that relates the variables and constants.

Although this is sometimes immediate, there will be instances
when you need a combination of two or more equations in order
to come up with a working equation to solve the problem. Write
down this working equation.
5. Differentiate both sides of equation with respect to time.
Solve for the unknown variable in terms of other variables.

6. Substitute the numerical values and the rate you find into
your last equation to obtain the final answer. Do not substitute
values until you have differentiated.

Steps are meant to be followed

in the right order.
ASSIGNMENT
 Ex. 1. The top of a ladder 10 meters long rests on a
vertical wall of a residential building while the bottom
rests on a horizontal ground. If the top of slides
down at the rate of 20 meters per minute, how fast
is the lower end moves along the ground
when the lower end is 8 meters from the wall.
y = distance from the ground
to the top of the ladder
dy
 20m / min
dt
dx
?
dt
when x = 8 meters

Instantaneous speed.
x = distance from the bottom
of the ladder to the wall
 Ex. 1. The top of a ladder 10 meters long rests on a vertical
wall of a residential building while the bottom rests on a
horizontal ground. If the top of slides down at the rate of 20
meters per minute, how fast is the lower end moves
along the ground when the lower end is 8 meters
from the wall.
Draw a figure . Label and define your variables
y x l

Write down numerical facts

Write the variables rate of change as a derivative

with respect to time
Set up working equation
Differentiate both sides of the equation with
respect to time

Substitute the numerical values to solve for the

unknown.
 y = distance from the ground
to the top of the ladder
dy
 20m / min
dt
dx
? when x = 8 meters
dt

Instantaneous speed.

x = distance from the bottom

of the ladder to the wall

Relation at any time : 102 = x2 + y2 0  2x

dx
 2y
dy
dt dt
Differentiate with dx dy dx  y dy
 2x  2y 
respect to time dt dt dt x dt
when x = 8 meters, y?
y  (10) 2  82  6
dx  6m
  20m / min   15m / min The ladder moves along the
dt 8m ground 15m/min when x = 8
meters.
 In a hot-air balloon, it was observed that a
particular contestant’s hot air balloon rises
vertically at a constant speed of 30m/min. At an
observation point, 400 m away from the point
directly under the hot-air balloon, a tracker wants
to find how fast the angle of elevation of the
baloon is changing when the angle measured is
30°
Draw a figure . Label and define your variables
Write down numerical facts
Write the variables rate of change as a derivative
with respect to time
Set up working equation
Differentiate both sides of the equation with
respect to time
Differentiate both sides of the equation with
respect to time
Ex. 2. A man 167.68 cm. tall is walking directly away
from a lamp post fronting a building at the rate of
91.46 cm per second. If the lamp is 8 meters above
the ground,find

a. The rate at which his shadow is lengthening and

b the rate at which the tip of his shadow is moving.

Ex. 3. Water runs into a conical tank at the rate of 8
cubic meters per hour. If the height of the cone is 10
meters and the diameter of its opening is 12 meters,
how fast is the water level rising when the water is 3
meters deep?
Ex. 4. A girl is using a straw to drink coke from a
right cylindrical glass at the rate of 6 cubic cm per
second. If the height of the glass is 12 cm. and the
diameter is 6 cm, how fast is the level of the coke
falling at a constant rate?
Ex. 5. A man is flying a kite . He holds the string 1.5
meters above level ground, and the string is paid out
at the rate of 2 meters per second as the kite moves
horizontally at an altitude of 51.5 meters. Assuming
there is no sag in the string, find the rate at which the
kite is moving horizontally when there are 80 meters
of cord out?
Ex6. At noon a truck leaves a depot, traveling east at
a rate of 40kph . An hour later, a second truck leaves
the depot traveling north at a rate of 60kph. At what
rate is the distance between the trucks increasing at
2:00 pm that day?
Ex6. Car A is traveling west at 90 km/h and car B is
traveling north at 100 km/h. Both are headed for the
intersection of the two roads.?
7. An air traffic controller is sighting a
helicopter on a control station directly
ahead. The helicopter is flying 2km
above the sighting instrument at the
rate of 230 kph. How fast the sighting
instrument be turning when the angle
between the path of the helicopter and
the line of sight is 35°
 Example
Air is being released from a spherical balloon at the
rate of 3 cu. in./min. What is the rate of change of the
radius of the balloon when the radius of the balloon is 2 in.?
http://astro.ocis.temple.ed
u/~related rates
animations

http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~dhi
ll001/relatedrates/sandpiledemo
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Example 1. An observer is tracking a small plane flying
at an altitude of 5000 ft. The plane flies directly over the
observer on a horizontal path at the fixed rate of 1000
ft/min. Find the rate of change of the distance from the
plane to the observer when the plane has flown 12,000
feet after passing directly over the observer.
airplane demo
Example 2. A building supply company is off loading
sand from railway cars using a conveyor belt. The
conveyor belt moves the sand up an incline at a fixed
rate and spills it into a pile. The pile is conical in shape
and changes size as more sand is dumped onto it. By
observation it was noted that the height of the pile is
some constant times the radius of the circular base.
sandpile
ladderdemo
oilspill demo
snowball
ellipse demo
paint
baseball