A hemispherical goldfish tank with radius 15 cm (as shown in the figure above) was initially filled with water. The tank has a defect and water is leaking at a constant rate of 20 cm^3 per min. The volume of water in the tank is given by where is the depth of water at the centre of the tank in cm.

- (a)
Show that , the radius of the water surface in cm, is given by .
- (b)
Given that the minimum depth of water needed for the goldfish to survive is 5 cm, find, at this instant,
- (i)
the rate of change of the depth of water,
- (ii)
the rate of decrease of the radius of the water surface.
- (i)
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Worked solution
1(a)
1. Apply Pythagoras' theorem to the right-angled triangle formed by the water surface radius, the vertical distance to the tank's centre, and the tank's radius.
2. Expand the squared expression and make $r$ the subject.
Since represents a length, , therefore:
(shown)
1(b)(i)
1. Differentiate the given volume $V$ with respect to the depth $h$.
2. Apply the chain rule to find the rate of change of depth when $h=5$.
By the chain rule, .
Since water is leaking at , .
When ,
Substitute the values into the chain rule:
cm/min (or cm/min)
1(b)(ii)
1. Calculate $\frac{dh}{dt}$ at $h = 5$ (dependency from part (b)(i))
When , .
Given , using the chain rule :
2. Differentiate the radius $r$ with respect to $h$ and evaluate at $h = 5$
From part (a), .
When :
3. Calculate the rate of decrease of the radius $r$
Using the chain rule for connected rates of change:
Rationalising the denominator gives .
Since the question asks for the rate of decrease, we drop the negative sign.
Rate of decrease
cm/min (or cm/min)
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