The vertical cross-section of a custom-built acoustic shell for an outdoor concert stage is being designed. The shell rests on a flat horizontal stage floor. Using a coordinate system where the origin O O\,O is at the left-most point of the shell's base and the xxx-axis lies along the stage, the right-most point of the base is PPP. The shape of the cross-section is modelled by the equation
x2+y2=kx−10y x^2 + y^2 = k\sqrt{x} - 10y x2+y2=kx−10ywhere x x\,x and y y\,y are the horizontal and vertical distances from the origin in metres, and k k\,k is a constant.
The total width of the shell base OP OP\,OP is 16 metres. Determine the value of k k\,k for this design.
Show that the maximum height of the acoustic shell above the stage is approximately 7.1 metres.
State one limitation of using this mathematical equation to model the physical acoustic shell.
825 exam-style questions on OCR (MEI) A Level Maths 1.9 Calculus, covering 1.9.1 Gradient of a curve at a point, 1.9.2 Gradient as limit of chord gradient, 1.9.3 Derivative as gradient of tangent, 1.9.4 Sketch the gradient function, 1.9.5 Differentiate y = kx^n, 1.9.6 Second derivative as rate of change of gradient, 1.9.7 Stationary points: maxima and minima, 1.9.8 Increasing and decreasing functions, 1.9.9 Tangent and normal at a point, 1.9.10 Differentiate e^kx, a^kx and ln x (A-level only), 1.9.11 Differentiate trigonometric functions (A-level only), 1.9.12 Product rule (A-level only), 1.9.13 Quotient rule (A-level only), 1.9.14 Chain rule (A-level only), 1.9.15 Rates of change with the chain rule (A-level only), 1.9.16 Implicit differentiation (A-level only), 1.9.17 Concavity and the second derivative (A-level only), 1.9.18 Points of inflection (A-level only), 1.9.19 Integration as reverse of differentiation, 1.9.20 Integrate kx^n, 1.9.21 Constant of integration, 1.9.22 Indefinite and definite integrals, 1.9.23 Area between a graph and the x-axis, 1.9.24 Integrate e^kx, 1/x, sin kx, cos kx (A-level only), 1.9.25 Integration as the limit of a sum (A-level only), 1.9.26 Area between two curves (A-level only), 1.9.27 Integration by substitution (reverse chain rule) (A-level only), 1.9.28 Integration by substitution (other cases) (A-level only), 1.9.29 Integration by parts (A-level only), 1.9.30 Integration using partial fractions (A-level only), 1.9.31 Formulate first order differential equations (A-level only), 1.9.32 Solve first order differential equations (A-level only), and 1.9.33 Interpret solutions of differential equations (A-level only). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.