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2003 AMC 10B Problem 17

Problem 17 of 25IntermediateGeometry

An ice cream cone consists of a sphere of vanilla ice cream and a right circular cone that has the same diameter as the sphere. If the ice cream melts, it will exactly fill the cone. Assume that the melted ice cream occupies 75%75\% of the volume of the frozen ice cream. What is the ratio of the cone’s height to its radius? (Note: A cone with radius rr and height hh has volume πr2h3,\frac{\pi r^2 h}{3}, and a sphere with radius rr has volume 4πr33.\frac{4\pi r^3}{3}.)

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Solution

The melted volume equals the cone’s volume, so 3443πr3=13πr2h.\dfrac34 \cdot \dfrac43 \pi r^3 = \dfrac13 \pi r^2 h. Simplifying gives πr3=13πr2h,\pi r^3 = \dfrac13 \pi r^2 h, so h=3r.h=3r. The ratio of height to radius is 3:1.3:1. Thus, the correct answer is B.

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Concepts: volume · sphere · cone

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