Question

Related Rates Caculus Question .
One ship A is sailing due south at 16 miles per hour and a second ship B, 32 miles south of A, is sailing due east at 12 miles an hour.
(a). At what rate are they approaching or seperating at the end of one hour?
(b) At what rate are they approaching or seperating at the end of two hours?

What equation should I set up for this?

Answer 1

distance , d, of two ships is function of x and y:
\[d=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\]
x and y are at the same time functions of time, t. So d will also be, d(t).
Diferrentiate respect to time the d(x(t),y(t)) to find it's rate.