Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / Paper 2 / 19 / b / Solution

Use the diagram's labels: $a,b$ are horizontal side lengths and $c$ is the height of the rectangular parallelepiped. Its four top vertices are at horizontal distance $\sqrt{a^2+b^2}/2$ from the axis. Thus the contact constraint and volume areApply a Lagrange multiplier:For positive dimensions, the derivative equations areSubstituting the last equation into the first two givesHence $a=b$, and the constraint becomes $2c=H$. ThereforeThese are the maximal cylinder and box in an elliptic paraboloid dimensions for the rectangular case. A horizontal rotation of the square footprint gives the same volume by rotational symmetry.