Thorough revision of this area must pay special attention to questions in 2016 and 2011, where students

had major difficulties and mean marks were well below 50%.

ADVANCED MATHEMATICS
Stage 6
Calculus (Adv), C3 Applications of Calculus (Adv)
Rates of Change (Y12)
Teacher: Cassandra Church
Exam Equivalent Time: 78 minutes (based on allocation of 1.5 minutes per mark)

HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION
C3 Applications of Calculus is the biggest topic in the Advanced course, contributing a massive 19.1% to
new syllabus exams since introduced in 2020.
This topic has been split into five sub-topics for analysis purposes: 1-The Derivative Function and its
Graph (1.8%), 2-Curve Sketching (4.5%), 3-Tangents (3.3%), 4-Maxima and Minima (4.5%) and 5-Rates of
Change (5.0%).
This analysis looks at Rates of Change.

HSC ANALYSIS - What to expect and common pitfalls

Rates of Change (5.0%) as a sub-topic, is categorised into two areas of the syllabus: C1 Introduction to
Calculus (involving standard differentiation) and C3 Applications of Calculus (involving log, exponential
and trig underlyings).
This topic is regularly tested in questions that include integration. These questions are covered within C4
Other Integration Applications.
Rates of Change looks primarily at water flow, motion and exponential growth and decay examples, the
last of which was tested in both 2022 and 2020. In 2020, this caused problems by requiring students to
differentiate versus the normal and deserves close revision attention.
Motion featured in 2021 Adv Q26 with a substantial 5 mark allocation that proved challenging to most
students. Note that notation will not appear in Advanced questions (this will be restricted to Ext1).
Questions 5. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2005 HSC 6b

1. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2022 HSC 20 A tank initially holds 3600 litres of water. The water drains from the bottom of the tank. The tank takes 60
minutes to empty.
A scientist is studying the growth of bacteria. The scientist models the number of bacteria, , by the A mathematical model predicts that the volume, litres, of water that will remain in the tank after
equation minutes is given by
,
where is the number of hours after starting the experiment.
.
a. What is the initial number of bacteria in the experiment? (1 mark)

b. What is the number of bacteria 24 hours after starting the experiment? (1 mark)
i. What volume does the model predict will remain after ten minutes? (1 mark)
c. What is the rate of increase in the number of bacteria 24 hours after starting the experiment? (2 marks)
ii. At what rate does the model predict that the water will drain from the tank after twenty minutes? (2 marks)

iii. At what time does the model predict that the water will drain from the tank at its fastest rate? (2 marks)
2. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2021 HSC 23
A population, , which is initially 5000, varies according to the formula 6. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2021 HSC 26
A particle is shot vertically upwards from a point 100 metres above ground level.
where is a positive constant and is time in years, .
The position of the particle, metres above the ground after seconds, is given by
The population is 1250 after 20 years.
.
Find the value of , correct to one decimal place, for which the instantaneous rate of decrease is 30 people
a. Find the maximum height above ground level reached by the particle. (2 marks)
per year. (4 marks)
b. Find the velocity of the particle, in metres per second, immediately before it hits the ground, leaving your
answer in the form , where and are integers. (3 marks)
3. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2020 HSC 21
Hot tea is poured into a cup. The temperature of tea can be modelled by , where 7. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2016 HSC 16b
is the temperature of the tea, in degrees Celsius, minutes after it is poured.
Some yabbies are introduced into a small dam. The size of the population, , of yabbies can be modelled
a. What is the temperature of the tea 4 minutes after it has been poured? (1 mark)
by the function
b. At what rate is the tea cooling 4 minutes after it has been poured? (2 marks)

c. How long after the tea is poured will it take for its temperature to reach 55°C? (3 marks)

where is the time in months after the yabbies are introduced into the dam.
4. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2004 HSC 5b i. Show that the rate of growth of the size of the population is

A particle moves along a straight line so that its displacement, metres, from a fixed point is given by . (2 marks)
, where is measured in seconds.
i. What is the initial displacement of the particle? (1 mark) ii. Find the range of the function , justifying your answer. (2 marks)

ii. Sketch the graph of as a function of for . (2 marks) iii. Show that the rate of growth of the size of the population can be written as
iii. Hence, or otherwise, find when AND where the particle first comes to rest after . (2 marks) . (1 mark)

iv. Find a time when the particle reaches its greatest magnitude of velocity. What is this velocity? (2 marks)
iv. Hence, find the size of the population when it is growing at its fastest rate. (2 marks)
8. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2011 HSC 7b Worked Solutions
The velocity of a particle moving along the -axis is given by
, 1. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2022 HSC 20
where is the time in seconds and is the displacement in metres. a.
i. Show that the particle is initially at rest. (1 mark)

ii. Show that the acceleration of the particle is always positive. (1 mark)

iii. Explain why the particle is moving in the positive direction for all . (2 marks) b.
iv. As , the velocity of the particle approaches a constant.
Find the value of this constant. (1 mark)
v. Sketch the graph of the particle's velocity as a function of time. (2 marks)

9. Trigonometry, 2ADV T3 2020 HSC 31

c.
The population of mice on an isolated island can be modelled by the function.

where is the time in weeks and . The population of mice reaches a maximum of 35 000
when and a minimum of 5000 when . The graph of is shown.

a. What are the values of and ? (2 marks)

b. On the same island, the population of cats can be modelled by the function

Consider the graph of and the graph of .

Find the values of , for which both populations are increasing. (3 marks)

c. Find the rate of change of the mice population when the cat population reaches a maximum. (2 marks)

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2. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2021 HSC 23 3. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2020 HSC 21

a.
♦ Mean mark 42%.

b.

c.

♦ Mean mark part (c) 44%.

4. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2004 HSC 5b
i.

ii.

iv.

iii.
5. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2005 HSC 6b

i.

6. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2021 HSC 26

a.

ii.

b.

♦ Mean mark 38%.

iii.
7. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2016 HSC 16b

i.

ii.

♦♦♦ Mean mark (ii) 21%.

iii.

♦♦♦ Mean mark (iii) 18%.

iv.

♦♦♦ Mean mark (iv) 14%.

8. Calculus, 2ADV C3 2011 HSC 7b 9. Trigonometry, 2ADV T3 2020 HSC 31
i.
a.

ii. MARKER’S COMMENT: Students

b.
whose working showed as ,

. tended to score highly in this

♦♦ Mean mark part (b) 30%.
question.

iii.

♦♦♦ Mean mark 22%

COMMENT: Students found part (iii)
the most challenging part of this
.
question by far.

iv. ,

c.

♦♦♦ Mean mark part (c) 27%.

v. IMPORTANT: Use previous parts to
inform this diagram. i.e. clearly show
velocity was zero at and the
asymptote at .

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