As part of a game, a person stands m away from a wall and tries to throw an object through a 0.40 m wide hole in the wall. The point denotes the bottom of the hole, which is located 3.05 m above the ground. The object is thrown from point at a height of 1.75 m above the ground. The angle is denoted by in radians.
- (i)
Show that .
- (ii)
Using differentiation, find the value of which gives the stationary value of , giving your answer to four significant figures.
- (iii)
Show that the value of in (ii) corresponds to a maximum value of , and suggest why knowing this value of may be useful in this situation.
- (iv)
The person walks away from the wall at a constant rate of 0.1 m/s. Find the rate of change of at the instant when the person is 1 m away from the wall.
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Worked solution
9(i)
1. Define a horizontal reference line from $P$ and calculate the vertical distances to $A$ and $B$.
Let be the point on the wall that is horizontally level with .
Height of above ground = .
Height of above ground = .
Height of above ground = .
The vertical distance from to is:
The vertical distance from to is:
The horizontal distance is .
2. Use trigonometric ratios to find the angles and subtract them to show the result.
In the right-angled triangle :
In the right-angled triangle :
Since :
(Shown)
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9(ii)
1. Differentiate $\theta$ with respect to $x$ using the chain rule.
2. Equate the derivative to zero and simplify to form an equation in $x$.
For a stationary value, :
3. Solve for $x$ and round the answer to four significant figures.
9(iii)
1. Use the second derivative test to show that the stationary point is a maximum.
From (ii), and the stationary point occurs at .
Differentiating with respect to :
Substitute and :
Since , the value corresponds to a maximum value of .
2. Suggest why knowing this optimal value of x is useful in the context of the game.
Knowing this value of gives the optimal standing distance where the angle subtended by the hole is maximized. This provides the largest apparent target size for the thrower, giving them the maximum margin of error and thus the highest chance of successfully throwing the object through the hole.
Knowing this value of gives the position where the angle subtended by the hole is at its maximum. This maximizes the apparent size of the hole for the thrower, making it the easiest position to successfully throw the object through the hole.
9(iv)
1. Find the rate of change of $\theta$ with respect to $x$ when $x = 1$.
Differentiating the expression from (i) with respect to (as previously done in part ii):
At :
2. Apply the connected rates of change formula to calculate the rate of change of $\theta$ with respect to time.
Since the person walks away from the wall at , the distance is increasing, so .
Using the chain rule for connected rates of change:
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