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Exercise 6.1 · Q3

Q.The radius of a circle is increasing uniformly at the rate of 3 cm/s3 \text{ cm/s}. Find the rate at which the area of the circle is increasing when the radius is 10 cm10 \text{ cm}.

Telangana TsbieTextbookSubjective· 2mImportance★★★★★
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✓ Free question

The area of a circle increases at a rate proportional to its radius. Using the chain rule, dAdt=2πrdrdt\frac{dA}{dt} = 2\pi r \frac{dr}{dt}. Substituting r=10r = 10 cm and drdt=3\frac{dr}{dt} = 3 cm/s gives dAdt=60π\frac{dA}{dt} = 60\pi cm²/s.

This is a classic related rates problem. The core idea: when two quantities are linked by a formula (here, area and radius of a circle), their rates of change with respect to time are also linked. If you know how fast one is changing, you can find how fast the other is changing — provided you know the relationship at the instant in question.

The key tool is the chain rule from calculus. If A=πr2A = \pi r^2, then differentiating both sides with respect to time tt gives dAdt=dAdr⋅drdt=2πr⋅drdt\frac{dA}{dt} = \frac{dA}{dr} \cdot \frac{dr}{dt} = 2\pi r \cdot \frac{dr}{dt}.

Let’s walk through it step by step.

  1. Identify the given and required rates.

    We are told: drdt=3\frac{dr}{dt} = 3 cm/s (the radius increases at this constant rate).

    We need: dAdt\frac{dA}{dt} when r=10r = 10 cm.

  2. Write the relationship between area and radius.

    For a circle, A=πr2A = \pi r^2.

  3. Differentiate with respect to time.

    Since AA depends on rr, and rr depends on tt, use the chain rule:

dAdt=ddt(πr2)=π⋅2r⋅drdt=2πrdrdt.\frac{dA}{dt} = \frac{d}{dt}(\pi r^2) = \pi \cdot 2r \cdot \frac{dr}{dt} = 2\pi r \frac{dr}{dt}.

For any circle, the rate of change of area with respect to time is:

dAdt=2πrdrdt\frac{dA}{dt} = 2\pi r \frac{dr}{dt}

  1. Substitute the known values. At the instant when r=10r = 10 cm and drdt=3\frac{dr}{dt} = 3 cm/s:

dAdt=2π(10)(3)=60π cm2/s.\frac{dA}{dt} = 2\pi (10)(3) = 60\pi \text{ cm}^2/\text{s}.

Watch out

A common mistake is to substitute r=10r = 10 before differentiating. If you plug r=10r = 10 into A=πr2A = \pi r^2 first, you get a constant area — and its derivative is zero. That’s wrong because the radius is changing. Always differentiate first, then substitute.

  1. Interpret the result. The area is increasing at 60π60\pi cm²/s at that moment. Since π≈3.14\pi \approx 3.14, this is roughly 188.4188.4 cm²/s. The rate itself will keep increasing as the radius grows, because dAdt\frac{dA}{dt} depends on rr.
✓Final answer

The area is increasing at 60π cm2/s\boxed{60\pi \text{ cm}^2/\text{s}} when the radius is 1010 cm.

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