Unit #5 - Implicit Differentiation, Related Rates

Some problems and solutions selected or adapted from Hughes-Hallett Calculus.

Implicit Differentiation
1. Consider the graph implied by the equation xy 2 = 1.
What is the equation of the line through ( 41 , 2) which
is also tangent to the graph?

2. Consider the circle defined by x2 + y 2 = 25

(a) Find the equations of the tangent lines to the circle

where x = 4.
(b) Find the equations of the normal lines to this
circle at the same points. (The normal line is per-
pendicular to the tangent line.)
(c) At what point do the two normal lines intersect?

3. Calculate the derivative of y with respect to x, given (The devil’s curve)

that
x4 y + 4xy 4 = x + y 11. Use implicit differentiation to find the (x, y) points
where the circle defined by
4. Calculate the derivative of y with respect to x, given
that
xey = 4xy + 5y 4 x2 + y 2 − 2x − 4y = −1

5. Use implicit differentiation to find the equation of the has horizontal and vertical tangent lines.
tangent line to the curve xy 3 + xy = 14 at the point
(7, 1).
(a) Find the points where the curve has a horizontal
6. Find dy/dx by implicit differentiation. tangent line.
√
x + y = 9 + x2 y 2 (b) Find the points where the curve has a vertical tan-
gent line.
7. Find all the x-coordinates of the points on the curve
x2 y 2 + xy = 2 where the slope of the tangent line is 12. The relation
−1.

8. Where does the normal line to the ellipse x2 − 2xy + y 2 + 6x − 10y + 29 = 0

x2 − xy + y 2 = 3 defines a parabola.
at the point (−1, 1) intersect the ellipse for the second
time? (a) Find the points where the curve has a horizontal
tangent line.
9. The curve with equation 2y 3 +y 2 −y 5 = x4 −2x3 +x2 has
been likened to a bouncing wagon (graph it to see why). (b) Find the points where the curve has a vertical tan-
Find the x-coordinates of the points on this curve that gent line.
have horizontal tangents.

10. Use implicit differentiation to find an equation of the 13. The graph of the equation
tangent line to the curve
x2 + xy + y 2 = 9
y 2 (y 2 − 4) = x2 (x2 − 5)

at the point (x, y) = (0, −2). is a slanted ellipse illustrated in this figure:

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 Think of y as a function of x.
(a) Differentiating implicitly, find a formula for the
slopes of this shape. (Your answer will depend on
x and y.)
(b) The ellipse has two horizontal tangents. The upper
one has the equation characterized by y 0 = 0. To
find the vertical tangent use symmetry, or think of
x as a function of y, differentiate implicitly, solve
for x0 and then set x0 = 0.

Related Rates
14. Gravel is being dumped from a conveyor belt at a rate her shadow moving when she is 45 ft from the base of
of 30 cubic feet per minute. It forms a pile in the shape the pole?
of a right circular cone whose base diameter and height
are always equal. How fast is the height of the pile in- 19. A boat is pulled into a dock by a rope attached to the
creasing when the pile is 17 feet high? bow of the boat and passing through a pulley on the
Recall that the volume of a right circular cone with dock that is 1 m higher than the bow of the boat.
height h and radius of the base r is given by V = If the rope is pulled in at a rate of 1.2 m/s, how fast is
1 2
3 πr h. the boat approaching the dock when it is 9 m from the
dock?
15. When air expands adiabatically (without gaining or
losing heat), its pressure P and volume V are related
by the equation P V 1.4 = C where C is a constant. Rope
Suppose that at a certain instant the volume is 550 Dock
cubic centimeters, and the pressure is 91 kPa and is
decreasing at a rate of 7 kPa/minute. At what rate in
cubic centimeters per minute is the volume increasing Water
at this instant?
20. A plane flying with a constant speed of 4 km/min
(Pa stands for Pascal – it is equivalent to one New-
passes over a ground radar station at an altitude of
ton/(meter squared); kPa is a kiloPascal or 1000 Pas-
16 km and climbs at an angle of 45 degrees. At what
cals. )
rate, in km/min, is the distance from the plane to the
16. At noon, ship A is 40 nautical miles due west of ship B. radar station increasing 1 minute later?
Ship A is sailing west at 23 knots and ship B is sailing Recall the cosine law,
north at 23 knots. How fast (in knots) is the distance
between the ships changing at 6 PM? (Note: 1 knot is c2 = a2 + b2 − 2ab cos(θ)
a speed of 1 nautical mile per hour.)
where θ is the angle between the sides of length a and
17. The altitude of a triangle is increasing at a rate of b.
1 cm/min while the area of the triangle is increasing
at a rate of 3 cm2 /min. 21. Water is leaking out of an inverted conical tank at a
At what rate is the base of the triangle changing when rate of 12000.0 cubic centimeters per min at the same
the altitude is 10 cm and the area is 105 cm2 ? time that water is being pumped into the tank at a
constant rate.
18. A street light is at the top of a 11 ft tall pole. A
woman 6 ft tall walks away from the pole with a speed • The tank has height 8.0 meters and the diameter
of 5 ft/sec along a straight path. How fast is the tip of at the top is 5.0 meters.

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 • The depth of the water is increasing at 28.0 cen- dV dh
(b) How is related to if r is constant and h
timeters per minute when the height of the water dt dt
varies with time?
is 4.0 meters.
dV dh dr
Find the rate at which water is being pumped into the (c) How is related to and if both h and r
dt dt dt
tank, in cubic centimeters per minute. vary with time?

22. A spherical snowball is melting in such a way that its 27. A hot air balloon rising vertically is tracked by an ob-
diameter is decreasing at rate of 0.4 cm/min. At what server located 2 miles from the lift-off point. At a cer-
rate is the volume of the snowball decreasing when the tain moment, the angle between the observer’s line-of-
diameter is 17 cm? (Note the answer is a positive num- sight and the horizontal is π6 , and it is changing at a
ber). rate of 0.1 rad/min. How fast is the balloon rising at
23. The gas law for an ideal gas at absolute temperature T this moment?
(in kelvins), pressure P (in atmospheres), and volume
V is P V = nRT , where n is the number of moles of the 28. A road perpendicular to a highway leads to a farmhouse
gas and R = .0821 is the gas constant. Suppose that, located 5 mile away. An car traveling on the highway
at a certain instant, P = 8 atm and is increasing at a passes through this intersection at a speed of 55mph.
rate of 0.10 atm/min and V = 10 L and is decreasing How fast is the distance between the car and the farm-
at a rate of 0.15 L/min. Find the rate of change of T house increasing when the car is 7 miles past the inter-
with respect to time at that instant if n = 10 moles. section of the highway and the road?
24. The frequency of vibrations of a vibrating violin string
s 29. Assume that the radius r of a sphere is expanding at a
1 T rate of 6in./min. The volume of a sphere is V = 34 πr3 .
is given by f = , where L is the length of the
2L ρ
Determine the rate at which the volume is changing
string, T is the tension, and ρ is its linear density.
with respect to time when r = 11in.
Find the rate of change of the frequency with respect
to: 30. The radius of a circular oil slick expands at a rate of 7
(a) the length (when T and ρ are constant) m/min.
(b) the tension (when L and ρ are constant) (a) How fast is the area of the oil slick increasing when
(c) the linear density (when L and T are constant) the radius is 26 m?
The pitch of a note is determined by the frequency
(b) If the radius is 0 at time t = 0, how fast is the area
f . (The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch.)
increasing after 2 mins?
Use the signs of the derivatives in (a) through (c)
to determine what happens to the pitch of a note:
31. A searchlight rotates at a rate of 2 revolutions per
(d) when the effective length of a string is decreased by minute. The beam hits a wall located 10 miles away
placing a finger on the string so a shorter portion and produces a dot of light that moves horizontally
of the string vibrates. along the wall. How fast (in miles per hour) is this dot
(e) when the tension is increased by turning a tuning moving when the angle θ between the beam and the
peg. line through the searchlight perpendicular to the wall
(f) when the linear density is increased by switching is π6 ? Note that dθ/dt = 2(2π) = 4π rad/minute.
to another string.
32. A kite 100 f t above the ground moves horizontally at
25. A potter forms a piece of clay into a right circular a speed of 8 f t/s. At what rate is the angle between
cylinder. As she rolls it, the height h of the cylin- the string and the horizontal decreasing when 200 f t of
der increases and the radius r decreases. Assume that string have been let out?
no clay is lost in the process. Suppose the height of
the cylinder is increasing by 0.4 centimeters per sec- 33. If two resistors with resistances R1 and R2 are con-
ond. What is the rate at which the radius is changing nected in parallel, as in the figure, then the total resis-
when the radius is 3 centimeters and the height is 12 tance R, measured in Ohms (Ω), is given by:
centimeters?
1 1 1
26. The volume V of a right circular cylinder of radius r = +
R R1 R2
and height h is V = πr2 h.
dV dr If R1 and R2 are increasing at rates of .3 Ω/s and
(a) How is related to if h is constant and r .2 Ω/s, respectively, how fast is R increasing when
dt dt
varies with time? R1 = 80 Ω and R2 = 100 Ω?

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 R1 shape of an isosceles trapezoid that is 30 cm wide at
the bottom, 80 cm wide at the top, and has height 50
cm. If the trough is being filled with water at a rate of
0.2 m3 /min, how fast is the water level rising when the
water is 30 cm deep?

V
R2 35. A voltage V across a resistance R generates a current
I = V /R. If a constant voltage of 4 volts is put across
a resistance that is increasing at a rate of 0.7 ohms per
second when the resistance is 7 ohms, at what rate is
34. A water trough is 10 m long and a cross-section has the the current changing?