Answer:
Let's start by recalling the formula for the area of a circle: A = πr^2, where A is the area and r is the radius.
We are given that the radius is decreasing at a constant rate of 7 cm/s. This means that dr/dt = -7 cm/s, where t is time.
We want to find the rate of change of the area, dA/dt, at the instant when r = 4 cm.
To do this, we can use the chain rule of differentiation:
dA/dt = dA/dr * dr/dt
We know that A = πr^2, so we can differentiate with respect to r to find dA/dr:
dA/dr = 2πr
Now we can substitute the given values and solve for dA/dt:
r = 4 cm
dr/dt = -7 cm/s
dA/dr = 2πr = 2π(4) = 8π
dA/dt = dA/dr * dr/dt = (8π) * (-7) = -56π ≈ -175.929 cm^2/s (rounded to three decimal places)
Therefore, the rate of change of the area is approximately -175.929 cm^2/s when the radius of the circle is 4 cm and decreasing at a constant rate of 7 cm/s.