Identifier: Related Rates

The key identifiers with related rates problems are in the question you are being asked, and the information you are being given to start with.

• If you would like to know how some piece of a word problem is changing with respect to time or just changing , then you are most likely looking at a related rates problem.

An example of language you might see could be, “The height is moving at $5\frac{m}{s}$, how fast is the volume changing?”

• Another identifier is that the word problem is asking you to find how something is changing at a specific moment in time .

An example of language you might see could be, “At the moment the length is $5m$ and the height is moving at $5\frac{m}{s}$, how fast is the volume changing?”

• If you are being given rates of change ($\frac{m}{s}$, miles per hour, a value with per in it)in the word problem, then you are most likely looking at a relate rates problem.