Related Rate Exercises I

1) A ladder 26ft long rests on a horizontal ground and leans against a vertical wall.
The foot of the ladder slides out at a rate of 4ft/s. How fast is the top of the ladder
sliding down the wall when the foot is 10ft. from the wall?

2) A person on a pier pulls in a boat using a rope fastened to the bow. The person
pulls in on the rope at 5ft/min and is holding the rope 15ft above the fastening.
How fast is the boat moving when it is 20ft away from the peir?

3) Car A is traveling west at 50km/h, car B is traveling north at 60km/h and both
cars are headed toward the intersection of two roads. At what rate are the cars
approaching each other when car A is 0.3km and car B is 0.4km from the
intersection?

4) At a certain instant the length of a rectangle is 16cm long, the width is 12cm and
the width is increasing at a rate of 3cm/s. How fast is the length changing if the
area of the rectangle is increasing at the rate of 24cm2/s?

5) A cylindrical tank is 6m high, has a radius of 2m and is being filled at a rate of

1/100m3/min. How fast is the water rising when the water is 0.5m deep?

6) A spherical balloon is being inflated with air and the volume of the air in the balloon
is increasing at 20cm3/sec. When the radius is 30cm, how fast is the radius of the
balloon increasing at that time?

7) A person 6ft tall walks at the rate of 5ft/s toward a street light that is 16ft above
the ground. At what rate is the length of the shadow changing when the person is
10ft from the base of the light? At what rate is the tip of the person’s shadow
moving?

8) A person is 5ft tall and walks away from a 20ft tall lamp post at 7ft/sec. When the
person is 8ft from the lamp post calculate the rate at which the tip of the person’s
shadow is moving.

9) A water tank is in the shape of a cone having a base radius of 2m and a height of
4m. If water is pumped in at a rate of 2m3/min, find the rate at which the water
level is rising when the water is 3m deep.

10) Gravel is being dumped from a conveyor belt at a rate of 30ft3/min. The gravel
forms a conical pile with base diameter and height being equal. How fast is the
pile increasing when the pile is 10ft high?

11) A balloon is released at a point A and rises vertically with a constant speed of
5m/s. Point B is on the ground at a distance of 10m from point A. How fast is the
angle of elevation of the balloon at point B changing when the balloon is 20m
above the ground?

12) Water runs into a conical tank at a rate of 20ft3/min. The tank has a height of 10ft
and a base radius of 15ft. How fast is the water rising when the water is 6ft deep?
Solutions-Related Rate Exercise I
 Solutions
Related Rate Exercise I
 Solutions
Related Rate Exercise I
 Related Rate
Related Exercise
Rates II
Exercises

1)A launch whose deck is 7 ft below the level of a windlass (winch) on a wharf is being pulled
toward the wharf by a rope attached to a ring on the deck. If the windlass pulls in the rope at the
rate of 15 ft/min, how fast is the launch moving through the water when there are 25 ft of rope out?

2)A light is on the ground 40 ft from a building. A man 6 ft tall walks from the light towards the
building at 5 ft/sec. How rapidly is his shadow on the building growing shorter when he is 10 ft from
the building?

3)A trough 10 ft long has as its ends isosceles triangles with altitude 2 ft and base 2 ft; their vertices
being at the bottom. If water is let into the trough at the rate of 3 ft3/min, how fast is the water level
rising when the water is 1 ft deep?

4)Sand is issuing from a spout at the rate of 3 ft3/min and falling on a conical pile whose diameter
at the base is always 3 times the altitude. At what rate is the altitude increasing when the altitude
is 4 ft?

5)A baseball diamond is 90 ft on a side. A man runs from first base to second base at 25 ft/sec.
At what rate is his distance from third base decreasing when he is 30 ft from first base? At what
rate is his distance from home plate increasing? (at this same instant)

6)A woman starts walking eastward at 5 ft/sec from a point A. Ten minutes later a man starts walking
west at the rate of 5 ft/sec from a point B, 3000 ft north of A. How fast are they separating 10 min
after the man starts?

7)A point moves along the upper half of the curve y2 = 2x + 1 in such a way that dx/dt = x3. Find
dy/dt when x = 4.

8)A man 6 ft tall is walking away from a lamppost 24 ft high at the rate of 4 ft/sec. At what rate is
the end of his shadow moving away from the lamppost? At what rate is the length of his shadow
increasing?

9)A cylindrical can is being heated with its height increasing at the rate of .01 cm/min and its
diameter at the rate of .005 cm/min. At what rate is the volume increasing when the can has
diameter 15 cm and height 20 cm?

10)An airplane at an altitude of 4400 ft is flying horizontally directly away from an observer. At the
instant when the angle of elevation is 45°, the angle is decreasing at the rate of 0.05 radians/sec.
How fast is the airplane flying at that instant?

11)A lighthouse is three miles off a straight shore. Its light makes three revolutions per minute. How
fast does the light beam move along a sea wall at a point two miles down the coast?

12)A man is walking along a sidewalk at the rate of 5 ft/sec. A searchlight on the ground 30 ft from
the walk is kept trained on him. At what rate is the searchlight revolving when the man is 20 ft away
from the point on the sidewalk nearest the light?

13)A ladder 10 ft long is leaning against a wall 8 ft high, with its upper end projecting over the wall.
If the lower end of the ladder slides away from the wall at the rate of 2 ft/sec, find the rate at which
the upper end of the ladder is approaching the ground when the upper end reaches the top of the
wall?

14)A bridge is 30 ft above a canal. A motorboat going 10 ft/sec passes under the center of the
bridge at the same instant that a man walking 5 ft/sec reaches that point. How rapidly are they
separating 3 sec later?
 Solutions
Related Rate Exercise II
 Solutions
Related Rate Exercise II
 Related Rates

In many real world problems two or more related quantities are changing with
time t. Related rate problems involve calculating the rate at which some quantity is
changing with respect to time given the rates of change of some other quantities. An
equation relating these quantities is first determined and then is implicitly differentiated
with respect to time producing an equation relating the derivatives of the quantities.

The general approach for solving related rate problems is as follows:

• Draw a diagram and assign variables to the quantities
• Determine an equation relating these quantities
• Implicitly differentiate the equation with respect to time
• Substitute the given values into the equation and solve for the desired rate of
change at the given instant of time

1) Gas is pumped into a spherical balloon at the rate of 50ft3/s. How fast is the radius of
the balloon increasing at the instant when the radius is 12ft? How fast is the surface
area increasing at the same instant? {(25/288π)ft/sec, 25/3ft2/s}

2) Water floats out of a conical container at a rate of 3in3/s. The container has a radius of
2in and a height of 8in. How fast is the water level dropping at the instant when the
level is 5in high? {(-48/25π)in/sec}

3) A 20ft ladder leans against a vertical wall. If the base of the ladder is pulled away
from the wall at the constant rate of 4ft/s, find the speed at which the top of the ladder
is sliding down the wall at the instant when the base is 12ft from the wall. {-3ft/s}

4) A person 1.8m tall is walking away from a lamp post that is 4m high at the rate of
2m/s. At what rate is the person’s shadow lengthening when the person is 6m away
from the lamp post? {18/11m/s}

5) A car leaves point A and travels north at a speed of 20mph. Two hours later a second
car heads east from A at 30mph. How fast are the two cars separating at the instant
when the first car is 60miles north of A? {(14)(5(1/2))mph}

6) A balloon leaving the ground 60ft from an observer rises at the rate of 5ft/s. How fast
is the angle of elevation of the observer’s line of sight increasing at the instant when
the balloon is at an altitude of 80ft? {3/100rads/s}

7) A searchlight S located on the ground 12m from a straight road is trained on a car
traveling on the road at a speed of 20m/s. Find the rate at which the searchlight is
rotating at the instant when the car is 5m away from the point on the road nearest to
the searchlight. {-240/169rads/s}
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