2021 THREE(e)

Question
A lamp is suspended above the centre of a round table of radius .

The height, , of the lamp above the table is adjustable.
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Point P is on the edge of the table.

At point P the illumination is directly proportional to the cosine of angle in the above diagram,
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance, , to the lamp.

i.e. , where is a constant.

Prove that the edge of the table will have maximum illumination when .

*You do not need to prove that your solution gives the maximum value.*

*You must use calculus and show any derivatives that you need to find when solving this problem.*
Full Solution

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Video Explanation
NCEA Level 3 Calculus Differentiation 2021 NZQA Exam - Worked Answers by infinityplusone(starts at 75:34)
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