How High Should Water Be in a Half-Cylinder Tank to Be Half Full?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on calculating the height of water in a half-cylinder tank to achieve a half-full state. The tank has a radius of 10 ft and a length of 30 ft, leading to a required water volume of 4712.4 cubic feet. The user attempted to solve the problem using integral calculus, specifically setting up an integral with the function 30∫0h 2√(100-y²) * 2y dy. However, the user expressed uncertainty about the correctness of their approach and calculations, suspecting that the height should be less than half the radius.

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Homework Statement



A water tank is in the shape of a half cylinder sitting on its side (not its top or its bottom). Let the radius be 10 ft and let the side-lenth on the floor be 30 feet. What should be the water height, measured from the floor up, so that the water tank is half full?

Homework Equations



Volume of a cylinder- h*(pi)r^2

The Attempt at a Solution



First i found the volume needed, which is (30)*(10)^2*pi/2 = 4712.4

Then I tried this problem breaking down rectangular boxes into dy components and set up the integral as follows (using 2sqrt(100-y^2 as the width of the boxes and y as the height of the boxes and 30 being the constant length)

30\int^{0}_{h}\2sqrt{100-y^{2}}*2y dy

and set it equal to the needed volume.

I ended up getting 7.7, which i feel is wrong because the height should be less than half of the radius by just thinking about what SHOULD happen.

Should i be taking an entirely different approach to this or what?

ps sorry for the formatting inconsistencies... kinda new here.

thanks guys.

edit: i can't get my bounds right for whatever reason, but i set it from 0 to h.
 
Last edited:
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nevermind, i guess i did the calculations wrong.

Can anyone confirm this setup at least?
 

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