Paper 2, Section II, A

Variational Principles | Part IB, 2015

A right circular cylinder of radius aa and length ll has volume VV and total surface area AA. Use Lagrange multipliers to do the following:

(a) Show that, for a given total surface area, the maximum volume is

V=13A3CπV=\frac{1}{3} \sqrt{\frac{A^{3}}{C \pi}}

determining the integer CC in the process.

(b) For a cylinder inscribed in the unit sphere, show that the value of l/al / a which maximises the area of the cylinder is

D+ED+\sqrt{E}

determining the integers DD and EE as you do so.

(c) Consider the rectangular parallelepiped of largest volume which fits inside a hemisphere of fixed radius. Find the ratio of the parallelepiped's volume to the volume of the hemisphere.

[You need not show that suitable extrema you find are actually maxima.]

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