[ 4xR^2 - 3x^3 = 0 \quad\Longrightarrow\quad x\bigl(4R^2 - 3x^2\bigr) = 0. ]
[ V(x) = 2x^2 \bigl(R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}\bigr)^{1/2}. ]
[ V(x) = x^2 \cdot y = x^2 \cdot 2\sqrt{R^2 - \frac{x^2}{2}} = 2x^2\sqrt{R^2 - \frac{x^2}{2}} . ]
She felt a surge of satisfaction. The problem had been reduced to a single‑variable function, exactly as the title promised. The next step was to find the maximum of (V(x)). Maya knew she needed the derivative (V'(x)) and the critical points where it vanished (or where the derivative was undefined). She set her mind to the task. [ 4xR^2 - 3x^3 = 0 \quad\Longrightarrow\quad x\bigl(4R^2
[ V'(x) = 4x\sqrt{R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}} - \frac{x^3}{\sqrt{R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}}}. ]
Finally, the maximal volume:
Setting the numerator to zero (the denominator never vanished inside the feasible interval) produced ] She felt a surge of satisfaction
[ V'(x) = 4x\bigl(R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}\bigr)^{1/2} + 2x^2\left(\tfrac{1}{2}\right)\bigl(R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}\bigr)^{-1/2}(-x) ]
[ V_{\max}= x^2 y = \Bigl(\frac{2R}{\sqrt{3}}\Bigr)^2 \cdot \frac{2R}{\sqrt{3}} = \frac{4R^2}{3} \cdot \frac{2R}{\sqrt{3}} = \frac{8R^3}{3\sqrt{3}}. ]
A pleasant symmetry emerged: the height and the side of the base were equal! The optimal box turned out to be a whose edge length was (\frac{2R}{\sqrt{3}}). Maya knew she needed the derivative (V'(x)) and
Factoring out the common denominator gave
[ V'(x) = \frac{4x\bigl(R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}\bigr) - x^3}{\sqrt{R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}}} = \frac{4xR^2 - 2x^3 - x^3}{\sqrt{R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}}} = \frac{4xR^2 - 3x^3}{\sqrt{R^2 - \tfrac{x^2}{2}}}. ]
She pulled a chair, settled into the worn leather, and spread out her notes. The room was quiet except for the distant hum of the campus heating system and the occasional rustle of a late‑night janitor’s cart. Maya began by sketching the situation on a scrap of graph paper. A sphere centered at the origin, radius R , and a rectangular box whose center coincided with the sphere’s center. Because the base was a square, she let x denote the length of one side of the base, and y the height of the box.