A sphere in a quarter cone

Geometry Level 3

We wish to place the largest possible sphere in a quarter right circular cone. The quarter cone has a base that is a quarter circle. The radius of the base is R R and its height is H H , while the radius of the sphere is r r . If H R = 2 \dfrac{H}{R} = 2 , then what is the value of the ratio r R \dfrac{r}{R} ? Submit your answer correct to 3 decimal places.


The answer is 0.329.

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2 solutions

Ahmad Saad
Jul 22, 2017

Kelvin Hong
Jul 21, 2017

Using cylinder coordinate:

By studying the position of sphere in the quarter cone, we know that the sphere will tangent to two side of vertical plane and quarter circle at the bottom.

So, the coordinate of center of sphere will be ( r , r , r ) (r,r,r) .

Let see plane θ = π 4 \theta = \frac{\pi}{4}

Sphere will tangent to the incline line at this position.

So distance of center of sphere to the incline line will be radius of sphere,

or we can do it equivalently, from center of sphere to the plane x 2 R + y 2 R + z H = 1 \frac{x}{\sqrt2 R}+\frac{y}{\sqrt2 R}+\frac{z}{H}=1

r = 2 r R + r H 1 1 R 2 + 1 H 2 r=|\frac{\frac{\sqrt2 r}{R}+\frac{r}{H}-1}{\sqrt{\frac{1}{R^2}+\frac{1}{H^2}}}|

r = r ( 2 + R H ) R 1 + R 2 H 2 r=|\frac{r(\sqrt2 +\frac{R}{H})-R}{\sqrt{1+\frac{R^2}{H^2}}}|

Hence, we can compute H R = 2 \frac{H}{R}=2 now,

Doing some work, found that

( 2 + 1 ) ( r R ) 2 ( 2 2 + 1 ) ( r R ) + 1 = 0 (\sqrt2+1)(\frac{r}{R})^2-(2\sqrt2 +1)(\frac{r}{R})+1=0

Solving this to get r R = 1.256 o r 0.3298 \frac{r}{R}=1.256 or 0.3298

but since the ratio giving no sense if it bigger than 1,

So r R = 0.330 \frac{r}{R}=\boxed{0.330}

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