[Math] Water leaking out of a conical tank and water pumped in

calculus

Water is leaking out of an inverted conical tank at a rate of $0.0068\,\rm m^3/min$. At the same time water is being pumped into the tank at a constant rate. The tank has height $14\,\rm m$ and the diameter at the top is $5.5\,\rm m$. If the water level is rising at a rate of $0.24\,\rm m/min$ when the height of the water is $3\,\rm m$, find the rate at which water is being pumped into the tank.

I tried to solve, but I don't know what the appropriate symbols would be to use in this situations. I got to

$$V' = \frac{2}{3}\pi r r'h + \frac{1}{3}\pi r^2 h',$$

but I don't know what to do next. If anyone could provide a step by step explanation I'd be grateful.

Best Answer

Let $h(t)$ be the height of the water at time $t$, and let $r(t)$ be the radius of the surface of the water at time $t$; from similar triangles we know that

$$\frac{h(t)}{r(t)}=\frac{14}{2.75}=\frac{56}{11}\;.$$

We could solve this for either $r(t)$ or $h(t)$ in terms of the other, but notice that we’re told $h'(t)$ at a particular moment, and we’re not told anything about an specific value of $r(t)$. This suggests that we’d be better off working in terms of $h(t)$, so we’ll solve for $r(t)$ and get $$r(t)=\frac{11}{56}h(t)\;.$$

At time $t$ the volume $V(t)$ of water in the tank is the volume of a right circular cone with height $h(t)$ and base radius $r(t)$, which is given by

$$V(t)=\frac13\pi r(t)^2h(t)=\frac{\pi}3\left(\frac{11}{56}h(t)\right)^2h(t)=\frac{121\pi}{9408}h(t)^3\;.$$

Then

$$V'(t)=\frac{121\pi}{3136}h(t)^2h'(t)\;.$$

We’re told that $h'(t)=0.24$ when $h(t)=3$; if we call that moment time $t_0$, we have

$$V'(t_0)=\frac{121\pi}{3136}\cdot3^2\cdot0.24=\frac{3267\pi}{39200}\text{ m}^3/\text{min}\;.$$

Now let $v$ be the rate in cubic metres per minute at which water is being pumped into the tank. Taking into account both the inflow and the leakage, we know that at all times

$$V'(t)=v-0.0068\text{ m}^3/\text{min}\;.$$

In particular, at time $t_0$ we have

$$v-0.0068=\frac{3267\pi}{39200}\;,$$

which is completely straightforward to solve for $v$.