Rate of rise of water level in a cylindrical tank
A cylindrical water tank has a fixed radius of m. Water is pumped into the tank at a constant rate of m/min.
Let be the depth of the water in the tank (in meters) at time (in minutes), and let be the volume of water in the tank at time . The tank has a constant radius of m, and water is poured in at a rate of m/min.
Set up an equation relating and , differentiate with respect to , and use it to find , the rate at which the water level is rising. (Note that since the radius is constant, this rate is the same at every water level.)
Hint
Start with the volume formula for a cylinder, , treating as a constant since the tank's radius doesn't change. Differentiate both sides with respect to , then substitute the known value of .
Step-by-step solution
The volume of water in a cylindrical tank of radius and water depth is Since the radius m is constant for this tank, differentiating both sides with respect to using the chain rule gives where stays fixed because does not change over time.
We are given m/min and m, so . Substituting into gives So the water level rises at a rate of m/min, approximately m/min.
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