Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A small robot moves on a flat floor. Its position is in metres. The controller turns the robot so that at every point its path has the slope for . The robot starts at the point . By separating the variables, the designer writes and integrates. She finds that the path is part of a circle centred at the origin. Find the radius of the circle in metres. Then find the height of the path when , still on the upper half of the circle. Find the slope of the path there, to four decimal places.
The equation gives the slope at every point. A solution curve follows these slopes, and two curves never cross. A step along the field is
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. and the start .
Plan. Integrate, use the start to fix the constant, then evaluate.
Step 1. Integrate. , so . The path is a circle about the origin.
Step 2. The radius. At the start, . So the radius is .
Step 3. The height at . , so on the upper half.
Step 4. The slope there. .
Answer: , and slope .
Check. The slope of a circle at a point is perpendicular to the radius. The radius to has slope , and .
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