Question
- A car’s rear windshield wiper rotates
. The total length of the wiper mechanism is 25 inche
and the length of the wiper blade is 14 inches. Find the area wiped by the wiper blade. (Hint: You
need to subtract two areas, to account for the part of the sector not wiped by the blade, near the
base of the mechanism.)
and the length of the wiper blade is 14 inches. Find the area wiped by the wiper blade. (Hint: You
need to subtract two areas, to account for the part of the sector not wiped by the blade, near the
base of the mechanism.)
Ask by Bond Cross. in the United States
Mar 20,2025
Upstudy AI Solution
Tutor-Verified Answer
Answer
The area wiped by the wiper blade is
square inches.
Solution
We model the area wiped by the wiper as the difference between two sectors. The full wiper mechanism has a length (radius) of 25 inches, but the wiper blade is only 14 inches long. Thus, the region actually wiped is the area of the sector of a circle with radius 25 inches minus the area of the sector (near the base) that is not reached by the blade. This inner sector has a radius of
Both sectors have the same central angle of
.
-
The area of a sector of a circle with radius
and central angle (in degrees) is given by -
For the outer sector (radius 25 inches) the area is
-
For the inner sector (radius 11 inches) the area is
-
The area wiped by the blade is the difference between these two sectors:Simplify the expression inside the parentheses:Thus,
-
To simplify, note thatTherefore,Sincewe obtain:
Thus, the area wiped by the wiper blade is
Answered by UpStudy AI and reviewed by a Professional Tutor
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Extra Insights
To find the area wiped by the wiper blade, we first need to calculate the area of the entire sector swept by the mechanism. The formula for the area of a sector is:
Here,
and
inches (the length of the wiper mechanism).
Calculating this gives:
Next, we calculate the area of the sector that remains unwiped at the base, where
inches (the length of the wiper blade) since
.
Calculating this gives:
Finally, subtract the unwiped sector area from the total swept area to find the area actually wiped by the wiper blade:
Thus, the area wiped by the wiper blade is approximately
square inches.