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Difficulty: 3/102024 NMTC 2024 (Q58)

A company sells peanut butter in cylindrical jars. If the diameter of the jars is increased by without altering the volume, by what percent must the height be decreased?

Options:

  • A.

    20%

  • B.

    25%

  • 36%

  • D.

    50%

Guide / Hint

Hint 1: Write the formula for the volume of a cylinder: .

Hint 2: An increase of 25% in radius means the new radius is . Square this to find the change in the cross-sectional area.

Hint 3: Set the new volume equal to the original volume and solve for the new height in terms of .

Solution

Step 1 (Volume Formula): The volume of a cylinder is given by , where is the radius and is the height.

Step 2 (Changes in Dimensions): The diameter (and therefore the radius) is increased by . Let the new radius be :

Since the volume remains constant ():

Step 3 (Decrease in height): The height is reduced from to , which is a decrease of:

Therefore, the height must be decreased by .

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