Related Rates

Example and Exercises

Review: Recall the formulas of
the following:
1. Area of a Circle
2. Area of a Trapezoid
3. Surface Area of a Sphere
4. Volume of a Circular Cylinder

5. Volume of a Cone
6. Volume of a Sphere
Area of a Circle
Surface Area of a Sphere
Volume of a Sphere
Surface Area of a Cylinder
Volume of a Cylinder
Volume of a Cone
 Related rates problems involve either
increasing or decreasing rates of change. It
involve two or more quantities that change
with time.

 The rate of change of one of the

variables is given and the other rate
of change is unknown.
• The use of related rates is helpful in
determining the missing rate of change
given two or more rate of change and
constant variables.

• In related rates, it is necessary to know

the concept of differentiation and to
recall the formulas in finding areas,
surface areas and volumes of 3D objects
like spheres, cylinders and cones.
The following are suggested steps in
solving related rate problems.
1. Draw the picture if applicable.
2. a. Write the given data including
the known rate of change.
b. Identify what rate of change is
asked for in the problem. If the rate of
change is decreasing, make the
quantity negative.
3. Use your knowledge on geometry or
trigonometry to be able to write one
variable in terms of the other variable.
4. Write an equation that relates the
variable concerned.
5. Differentiate both sides of the equation with
respect to time. The Chain Rule and Implicit
Differentiation are needed in this step. Do not
substitute values for variables that are changing
before taking the derivative.
6. Substitute the known rate of change
and the known quantity in the
equation.
7. Solve for the required rate of
change.
• Draw an illustration from the given data
as it will help identify which rate of
change is given and which one is missing.

• If the missing rate is said to be

decreasing, manually make the answer
negative.

• It is important to derive the formulas first

before substituting the values.
1. A ladder 12 meters long is leaning
against the wall of a building. The
bottom of the ladder is sliding away
from the wall at the rate of 1.5m/s.
How fast is the top of the ladder
sliding down when it is 3 meters above
the ground?
2. Assume that the radius r
of a sphere is expanding at a
rate of 7in/min. Determine
the rate at which the volume
is changing with respect to
time when r = 16in.
Let
Volume of sphere:

Derivation:

Substitution:
3. Water is poured into a conical
container at the rate 10cm3/sec.
The cone points directly down,
and it has a height of 30cm and
a base radius of 10cm. How fast
is the water level rising when
the water is 4cm deep?
Let
Volume of the cone: Derivation:

Rate of r: Substitute to the

equation:

Substitute to the
equation:
4. If a cylindrical tank
with radius 5m is being
filled with water at a rate
of 3m /min, how fast is
3

the height of the water

increasing?
Let
Volume of a cylinder:

Substitute the constant r:

By implicit differentiation, we get:

Substituting the rate of change in volume:


5. A road running north to south, where
car A drives along, crosses a road going
east to west, where car B drives along,
at point P. At a particular time, car A is
10km north of P and traveling at
80km/h, while car B is 15km east of P
and traveling at 100km/h. How fast is
the distance between the two cars
changing?
Let
a = distance of car A at time t
b = distance of car B at time t
c = distance between car A and car B at
time t
Using Pythagorean Theorem:
c2 = a2 + b2
Derivation:
2cc’ = 2aa’ + 2bb’

Substitution:
8. A spherical balloon is
being inflated at the rate of
350cm /min. How fast is the
3

radius of the balloon

increasing when the radius is
5 cm?
9. A tank is in the form of an inverted
right circular cone. Its height is 5
meters and its top rim which is circular
in shape has a radius of 2 meters. The
water is being pumped into the tank at
the rate of 0.4 cubic meters per minute.
At what rate is the level of water rising
when the water in the tank is 3 meters
deep.
10. A plastic container in the shape
of a cylinder is being filled with
coconut juice at the rate of If the
radius of the plastic container is
20cm., how fast is the height of the
coconut juice rising?
11. A man 1.8 meters tall is walking
away from 5.5 meter tall lamp port at
the rate of 120cm/s.
a. Find the rate at which the tip of
his shadow is changing.
b. Find the rate at which the length
of his shadow is changing.
Example 12:
a. Find the rate of change of the area of a
circle with respect to its radius.
b. When a stone is thrown into a pool, the
radius of a ripple generated in
increasing at the rate of 3 m/s. What is
the rate of increase of the area bounded
by the ripple when its radius is 1.2
meters.
 PERFORMANCE TASK 4:
1. A student is walking towards the foot of a flagpole 20
meters high at the rate of 8 meters per minute. At what
rate is he approaching the top of the flagpole when he
is 25 meters from its foot? ( Disregard student’s height )

2. A spherical balloon is being inflated by a science

teacher. Its volume is increasing at the rate of 300 cubic
centimeters per second. Find the rate of change of the
radius of the balloon when the radius is 6 centimeters.
3 . A water tank in the shape of a right
circular cone has a height of 10 feet. The top rim
of the tank is a circle with a radius of 4 feet. If
water is being pumped into the tank at the rate
of 2 cubic feet per minute, what is the rate of
change of the water depth, in feet per minute,
when the depth is 5 feet?
4. A right cylindrical tank is filled with water. The
tank stands upright has radius 20 cm. How fast
does the height of water in the tank drop when
the water is being drained at 25 cm3sec?