Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A landscape designer plans a curved path in a park, with all lengths in metres. At the point of the path the slope is . The path starts at the point and runs to the right, with and . The designer first checks that the top and the bottom of the fraction are homogeneous of the same degree. After the substitution and the integration, she writes the answer in the form . Find the constant , then the height of the path at and at . Give each height to four decimal places.
If the slope depends only on , put . Then and the variables separate.
Return to at the end.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. with at .
Plan. Check the degrees, put , separate, integrate, fix , and solve for .
Step 1. The degrees. The top has degree . The bottom has degree . So both have degree and the equation is homogeneous.
Step 2. Substitute. With : . So .
Step 3. Separate and integrate. gives . So .
Step 4. Return to and . . Multiply by : . This is the form the designer wrote, with .
Step 5. The constant. At : , so . Then , so .
Step 6. Evaluate. At : . At : .
Answer: , with heights and .
Check. The slope at is . At the slope is about . The average rise of for each metre lies between and , as it should.
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