Thread: Max/Min Problem

Hey, I really need help solving this problem. Help would be greatly appreciated.

1. A rectangle is to be inscribed in a semicircle with radius 4, with one side on the semicircle's diameter. What is the largest area this rectangle can have?

This problem was under the "Maxima and Minima" section of a math book, but I can't seem to figure out how to solve it.

I always find drawing it first to get better idea of the problem is a good start.

Make the length of the rectangle 2x. Look at the attached picture and you can see the length from centre of rectangle to top corner is the radius; 4. The length from centre to bottom corner is x. So height of rectangle will be (using pythagoras).

Area of rectangle is
differentiate that and solve for x to get the answer. You should get two answers, one of which will be zero and so obviously not the max answer!
hint: To make it easier I'd square both sides: