Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A small robot travels over a flat floor. Its position is measured in metres from a corner of the room. The direction of its path at the point has the slope . The robot passes through the point . Two straight lines make the top and the bottom of this fraction zero, and they cross at one point on the floor. The path can be written as . Find the constant . Then find the distance of the path from the crossing point along the direction of the positive axis, and along the direction of the positive axis, in metres.
A substitution replaces a combination of and by a new unknown . For put . A Bernoulli equation becomes linear with .
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 and in metres, and the path passes through .
Plan. Shift the origin to the crossing point of the two lines, solve the homogeneous equation, find from the point, then use polar form.
Step 1. Shift. The lines cross at . With and we get .
Step 2. Solve. With : . Separating gives . This is the stated form with .
Step 3. The constant. At we have and , so and the log term is . Then .
Step 4. Polar form. With and the relation says , so . The same law holds in every direction, because the equation is homogeneous.
Step 5. Evaluate. Along the positive direction , so . Along the positive direction , so .
Answer: , and .
Check. The path spirals outward: the distance grows by the factor for each radian of turn.
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