Deivatives of Trigonometric Functions. Help Please!

• April 15th 2010, 07:08 PM
elle1019
Deivatives of Trigonometric Functions. Help Please!
Any help would be appreciated please, I am really struggling with this concept.

A thin rigid pole is to be carried horizontally around a corner joining two corridors of width 1m and 0.8m, respectively. Find the length of the longest pole that can be transported in this manner.

Thanks very much in advance :)
• April 15th 2010, 10:05 PM
hollywood
You first calculate the length of the pole as a function of $\theta$. Now you need to find the minimum of that function. The construction guarantees that you have the largest possible pole, but it needs to fit for all $\theta$ in order to be carried around the corner.

To find the minimum, you set the derivative to zero, of course. And I assume you can take derivatives and manipulate trig functions.

If you run into any more trouble, post again in this thread and I'll answer as soon as I can.

- Hollywood