Problem

A race track 480 m long is built around an area that is a rectangle with a semicircle at each end. Find the length of the side of the rectangle adjacent to the track if the area of the rectangle is to be a maximum.

The length of the side of the rectangle adjacent to the track that maximizes the area is
(Type your answer using the appropriate number of significant digits.)

Answer

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Answer

Equality occurs when w=120 and r=120π, so the length of the side of the rectangle adjacent to the track that maximizes the area is 120.

Steps

Step 1 :Denote the width of the rectangle as w and the radius of each semicircle as r.

Step 2 :The length of the track is 2w+2πr=480, so w+πr=240.

Step 3 :By AM-GM inequality, we have 240=w+πr2wπr, which implies that wπr120.

Step 4 :Then wπr14400, so wr14400π.

Step 5 :The area of the rectangle is 2wr, so it must satisfy 2wr28800π.

Step 6 :Equality occurs when w=120 and r=120π, so the length of the side of the rectangle adjacent to the track that maximizes the area is 120.

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