# Differentiation of transcendental functions?

• June 5th 2012, 05:39 AM
tutto00
Differentiation of transcendental functions?
ABCD is a trapezium with AB = CD, with vertices on the circle and with centre O. AD is a diameter of the circle. The radius of the circle is 4 units.

a. Find BC in term of theta.
b. Find the area of the trapezium in terms of theta and hence find the maximum area.

Image of the diagram for this question:
http://i45.tinypic.com/23s944h.png
• June 5th 2012, 05:54 AM
earboth
Re: Differentiation of transcendental functions?
Quote:

Originally Posted by tutto00
ABCD is a trapezium with AB = CD, with vertices on the circle and with centre O. AD is a diameter of the circle. The radius of the circle is 4 units.

a. Find BC in term of theta.
b. Find the area of the trapezium in terms of theta and hence find the maximum area.

Image of the diagram for this question:
http://i45.tinypic.com/23s944h.png

1. The area of a trapezium is calculated by: $area = \frac{top + base}2 \cdot height$

2. Replace:
$base = 2r$
$height = r \cdot \sin(\theta)$
$top = 2 r \cdot \cos(\theta)$

3. The area a is a function of $\theta$ while r is a constant:

$a(\theta) = r^2 \sin(\theta) (1+\cos(\theta))$

4. Differentiate wrt $\theta$ and solve $a'(\theta) = 0$ for $\theta$