In the diagram above, a sphere is inscribed in a truncated cone such that the volume of the truncated cone is twice the volume of the sphere.
Find the measure of the slant height angle(in degrees) made with the larger base.
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Using the fact that tangents to a circle from an outside point are congruent we obtain the diagram above.
The height h of the truncated cone is h = 2 r
Using right △ A B C we have:
( w + m ) 2 = ( w − m ) 2 + 4 r 2 ⟹ w 2 + 2 w m + m 2 = w 2 − 2 w m + m 2 + 4 r 2 ⟹ 4 w m = 4 r 2 ⟹ r 2 = w m ⟹
r = w m .
The volume of the inscribed sphere V s = 3 4 π ( w m ) 2 3
and
The volume of the truncated cone is V T = 3 2 π ( w 2 + w m + m 2 ) ( w m ) 2 1
V T = 2 V s ⟹ w 2 + w m + m 2 = 4 w m ⟹ w 2 − 3 w m + m 2 = 0 ⟹ w = ( 2 3 ± 5 ) m
Since m w > 1 we choose w = ( 2 3 + 5 ) m ⟹ cos ( θ ) = w + m w − m = 5 + 5 1 + 5 = 5 1
⟹ θ ≈ 6 3 . 4 3 4 9 4 8 8 2 ∘ .