The velocity
of the blood flow of a skier is modeled by

where
is the radius of the blood vessel,
is the distance of the blood flow from the center of the vessel and is a constant. Suppose the skier's blood vessel has radius
mm and that cold weather is causing the vessel to contract at a rate of
mm per minute. How fast is the velocity of the blood changing?
Background Information:
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The equation of the tangent line to at the point is
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where
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Solution:
Step 1:
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We use implicit differentiation to find the derivative of the given curve.
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Using the product and chain rule, we get
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We rearrange the terms and solve for
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Therefore,
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and
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Step 2:
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Therefore, the slope of the tangent line at the point is
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Hence, the equation of the tangent line to the curve at the point is
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Final Answer:
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