Related Rates Problems (Calculus)
the car is 3 miles south of the intersection and
1. A spherical hot air balloon is being filled
with air. The volume is changing at a rate of 2
cubic feet per minute. How is the radius
changing with respect to time when the
radius is equal to 2 feet?
2. Sand falls onto a cone shaped pile at a rate
of 10 cubic feet per minute. The radius of the
pile's base is always 1/2 of its altitude. When
the pile is 5 ft deep, how fast is the altitude of
the pile increasing?
3. A 10 ft long ladder is leaning against a
vertical wall. The foot of the ladder is being
pulled away from the wall at a constant rate
of 2 ft/sec. When the ladder is exactly 8 ft
from the wall, how fast is the top of the ladder
sliding down the wall?
4. A boat is pulled into a dock via a rope with
one end attached to the bow of a boat and the
other end held by a man standing 6 ft above
the bow of the boat. If the man pulls the rope
at a constant rate of 2 ft/sec, how fast is the
boat moving toward the dock when 10 ft of
rope is out?
5. A spherical balloon is inflated at a rate of
100 ft3/min. Assuming the rate of inflation
remains constant, how fast is the radius of the
balloon increasing at the instant the radius is
4 ft?
6. Water is pumped from a cone shaped
reservoir (the vertex is pointed down) 10 ft in
diameter and 10 ft deep at a constant rate of 3
ft3/min. How fast is the water level falling
when the depth of the water is 6 ft?
7. Air is being pumped into a spherical
balloon such that its radius increases at a rate
of .75 in/min. Find the rate of change of its
volume when the radius is 5 inches.
8. A car is traveling north toward an
intersection at a rate of 60 mph while a truck
is traveling east away from the intersection at
a rate of 50 mph. Find the rate of change of
the distance between the car and truck when
the truck is 4 miles east of the intersection.
9. An observer is tracking a small plane flying
at an altitude of 5000 ft. The plane flies
directly over the observer on a horizontal
path at the fixed rate of 1000 ft/min. Find the
rate of change of the distance from the plane
to the observer when the plane has flown
12,000 feet after passing directly over the
observer.
10. A baseball diamond has the shape of a
square with sides 90 feet long. Tweety is just
flying around the bases, running from 2nd
base (top of the diamond) to third base (left
side of diamond) at a speed of 28 feet per
second. When Tweety is 30 feet from third
base, at what rate is Tweety’s distance from
home plate (bottom of diamond) changing?
11. A balloon is rising vertically above a level,
straight road at a constant velocity of 1 foot /
sec. Just when the balloon is 65 foot above the
ground, a bicycle passes under it going 17 feet
/ sec.
A) How fast is the distance between the
bicycle and the balloon increasing in 3
seconds and B) how fast is the angle of
elevation changing in 3 seconds?
12. A storage tank is 20 ft long and its ends
are isosceles triangles having bases and
altitudes of 3 ft. Water is poured into the tank
at a rate of 4 cu. ft./min. How fast is the water
level rising when the water in the tank is 6 in.
deep?
13. A rocket is being launched vertically over
a point A on the ground with a velocity of 550
mi/hr. Twenty-five miles away from point A
on the ground; there is a photographer video-
taping the launch. At what rate is the angle of
elevation of the camera changing when the
rockets achieves an altitude of 25 miles?
14. At 12 noon, ship A travels due west at 100
knots. After 4 hours, ship B leaves the same
port on the direction N30°W at 80 knots. How
fast is the distance between the two ships
changing at 8PM in the same day?

15. Two automobiles start from point A at the

same time. One travels west at 80 mi/hr and
the other travels north at 45 mi/hr. How fast
is the distance between them is increasing 3
hours later?

16. A light is 25 ft above a sidewalk and a man

6 ft tall is walking away from the point under
the light. If his shadow is lengthening at the
rate of 4 ft/sec, how fast is he walking?

17. The area of an expanding rectangle is

increasing at the rate of 48 square
centimeters per second. The length of the
rectangle is always equal to the square of its
width (in centimeters). At what rate is the
length increasing at the instant when the
width is 2 centimeters?

18. The length of a rectangle of constant area

of 800 square millimeters is increasing at the
rate of 47 millimeters per second.
A) Find the width of the rectangle at the
moment the width is decreasing at the rate of
0.5 millimeter per second.
B) Find the rate at which the diagonal of the
rectangle is changing when the width is 20
millimeters.

19. The surface area of a sphere is increasing

at the rate of 6π square inches per second.
How fast is the radius changing when the
surface area is 10 square inches?

20. Water is leaking out of a conical tank

(vertex down) at the rate of 0.5 ft3/min. The
tank is 30 ft. across at the top and 10 ft deep.
If the water level is rising at the rate of 1.5
ft/sec, at what rate is the water being poured
into the tank from the top?

21. If a tree trunk adds ¼ of an inch to its

diameter and 1 foot to its height each year,
how rapidly is its volume changing when its
diameter is 3 feet and its height is 50 feet?
(assume the tree trunk is in a shape of a right
circular cylinder).