SOLUTION: please help A rope runs through a pulley 3.05 m off the ground. One end hangs straight down and is attached to a car's engine that is being hoisted. The other end is attached 0.

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Travel -> SOLUTION: please help A rope runs through a pulley 3.05 m off the ground. One end hangs straight down and is attached to a car's engine that is being hoisted. The other end is attached 0.      Log On

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Question 1163077: please help
A rope runs through a pulley 3.05 m off the ground. One end hangs straight down and is attached to a car's engine that is being hoisted. The other end is attached 0.61m off the ground to the rear bumper of another car. The car drives away at 4 km/h. How fast, in m/s, is the rope going through the pulley when the car's rear bumper is 4.88m from being under the pulley? The rope is long enough so that the engine is between the ground and the pulley.
Round to 3 significant digits.

m/s

Answer by ikleyn(52879) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.

According to the condition, you have a right angled triangle.


One its leg is vertical and has constant dimension  v = (3.05 - 0.61) = 2.44 meters.


The other leg is horizontal and its dimension h increases with the rate of 


    %28dh%29%2F%28dt%29 = 4 km/h = 4000/3600 m/s = 10%2F9%29 m/s.


The hypotenuse  "c"  has the length  c = sqrt%28v%5E2+%2B+h%5E2%29  and it is the length of the rope between the pulley and 
the car's rear bumper.


The value under the question is  the derivative of "c"  over time "t"


    %28dc%29%2F%28dt%29 = (2*h*h'(t))/sqrt*(v^2 + h^2) = (2*h*h'(t))/sqrt*(v^2 + h^2).


You substitute the given data into the formula  and calculate 


    %28dc%29%2F%28dt%29 = %282%2A2.44%2A%2810%2F9%29%29%2Fsqrt%282.44%5E2+%2B+4.88%5E2%29 = 0.993808 m/s.


ANSWER.  The rope is going through the pulley at the rate of 0.993808 m/s, under given conditions.

Solved.

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The major lesson to learn from my post is THIS:

    After reading the post. you should ask yourself:

        What is given and what they want to get from me ?



    In this problem, they want you find the derivative of the length of the hypotenuse over the time.


    As soon as you understood it, the rest is just a technique.