Extra Practice: Optimization (4.

7)
The following are some extra practice problems for “optimization”, section 4.7. Solutions to
be posted soon.

1. Suppose we have two numbers, one is a positive number and the other is its reciprocal.
Find the two numbers so that the sum is small as possible.
SOLUTION: Let x and 1/x be the two numbers. Then we want to find the minimum
of:
1
f (x) = x + x≥0
x
If we look at the critical points of f , we see that x = ±1 (but we only take x = 1).
Further, the derivative is:
1 x2 − 1
f 0 (x) = 1 − 2 =
x x2
We see that f 0 (x) < 0 if 0 < x < 1 and f 0 (x) > 0 if x > 1. By the first derivative test,
x = 1 is the minimum.

2. Find two positive numbers such that their product is 16 and the sum is as small as
possible.
SOLUTION: Let x, y be the two numbers. We want to find the minimum of x + y, if
xy = 16.
Turning this into a function of one variable using substitution: y = 16/x, we have:
16 16
f (x) = x + ⇒ f 0 (x) = 1 −
x x2
Therefore, x = 4 is the critical points, and by the first derivative test, we see that
f 0 (x) < 0 if 0 < x < 4 and f 0 (x) > 0 if x > 4, so the minimum value is 4+ 16
4
= 4+4 = 8.

3. A 20-inch piece of wire is bent into an L-shape. Where should the bend be made to
minimize the distance between the two ends?
SOLUTION: Think of the wire as being bent so the corner is at the origin. Then the
two ends of the wire are at (x, 0) and (0, y), and we can interpret the problem as saying
that we want to find the minimum of x2 + y 2 (the square of the distance) such that
x + y = 20. Using substitution,

f (x) = x2 +(20−x)2 ⇒ f 0 (x) = 2x−2(20−x) = 0 ⇒ 2x−20 = 0 ⇒ x = 10

Now, we should also note that 0 ≤ x ≤ 20, so that at the endpoints, f (0) = 202 and
f (20) = 202 . We have f (10) = 102 which gives us our (global) minimum. Therefore,
L-shape should be a square, with each end being 10 inches.

1
4. Find the point on the line y = x closest to the point (1, 0).
SOLUTION: We recall that it is a bit easier to minimize the square of the distance, so
we’ll find the minimum of
(x − 1)2 + y 2 such that y = x
Therefore, we want the minimum of
f (x) = (x − 1)2 + x2 = 2x2 − 2x + 1 ⇒ f 0 (x) = 4x − 2 = 0 ⇒ x=2
We also note that if x < 2, then f 0 (x) < 0 and if x > 2, then f 0 (x) > 0. Therefore, we
have found the minimum at x = 2. The point on the line y = x that is closest to (1, 0)
is the point (2, 2).
5. A box is constructed out of two different types of metal. The metal for the top and
bottom, which are both square, costs $1.00 per square foot, and the metal for the sides
costs $2.00 per square foot. Find the dimensions that minimize the cost of the box is
the box must have a volume of 20 cubic feet.
SOLUTION: Since the top/bottom are square, let those dimensions be x, x and the
height be h. The cost of the box is determined by the surface area- The top and bottom
each have area x2 , and each side has area xh. Therefore,
Cost = 2x2 × $1.00 + 4xh × $2.00 = 2x2 + 8xh such that V = x2 h = 20
Now we see that we can write the cost function as a function of x alone (using substi-
tution)
20 160 160
C(x) = 2x2 + 8x 2 = 2x2 + ⇒ C 0 (x) = 4x − 2 = 0
x x x
Solving for x, we get
√
4x3 = 160 ⇒ x3 = 40 ⇒ x = 40
3

And the height would be 160/(402/3 ). We can check the first derivative as we did in
the previous problems, C 0 changes sign from negative to positive at the critical point.
6. A rectangle is to be inscribed between the x−axis and the upper part of the graph
of y = 8 − x2 (symmetric about the y−axis). For example, one such rectangle might
have vertices: (1, 0), (1, 7), (−1, 7), (−1, 0) which would have an area of 14. Find the
dimensions of the rectangle that will give the largest area.

SOLUTION: Try drawing a picture

first: The parabola opens down, goes
through the y−intercept
√ at 8, and has
x−intercepts of ± 8. Now, let x be as
usual, so that the full length of the base
of the rectangle is 2x.

2
 Then the height is y, or 8 − x2 . Therefore, the area of the rectangle is:

A = 2xy = 2x(8 − x2 ) = 16x − 2x3

√
and 0 ≤ x ≤ 8. We see that the area will be zero at the endpoints, so we expect a
maximum at the critical point inside the interval:

dA
= 16 − 6x2
dx
q
so the critical points are x = ± 8/3, of which only the positive one is in our interval.
So the dimensions of the rectangle are as follows (which give the maximum area of
approx. 17.4):

√ 8 16
2x = 2 83 y =8− =
3 3
7. What is the smallest possible area of the triangle that is cut off by the first quadrant
and whose hypotenuse is tangent to the curve y = 4 − x2 at some point?
SOLUTION: See the figure below.
The area of the triangle is A = 12 bh, where the
base is the length of the x− intercept of the
tangent line and the height is the y−intercept
of the tangent line.
If the x−coordinate for the tangent line is
given by (a, f (a)) and the slope is f 0 (a), then
the equation of the line is:

y − f (a) = f 0 (a)(x − a)

Further, we have f (a) = 4 − a2 and f 0 (a) =

−2a. To find the x−intercept, set y = 0 and
solve for x.
For the x−intercept, we get

2 a2 + 4
0 − (4 − a ) = −2a(x − a) ⇒ x=
2a
For the y−intercept, we get

y − (4 − a2 ) = −2a(0 − a) ⇒ y = a2 + 4

Therefore, the area is given by

a2 + 4  2 (a2 + 4)2
!
1 
A= a +4 =
2 2a 4a

3
 Set the derivative to zero:
dA (a2 + 4)2 a2 + 4
= a2 + 4 − = 0 ⇒ 1 = ⇒ 4a2 = a2 + 4
da 4a2 4a2
√
From which a = 2/ 3. If we look at a > 0, this is the only critical point, with the
derivative changing sign from negative to positive (so we have a global minimum).
Therefore, the smallest possible area is the following (on the exam, you could leave
this unevaluated to save time).

((4/3) + 4)2
A= √
4 · 2/ 3

8. You’re standing with Elvis (the dog) on a straight shoreline, and you throw the stick in
the water. Let us label as “A” the point on the shore closest to the stick, and suppose
that distance is 7 meters. Suppose that the distance from you to the point A is 10
meters. Suppose that Elvis can run at 3 meters per second, and can swim at 2 meters
per second. How far along the shore should Elvis run before going in to swim to the
stick, if he wants to minimize the time it takes him to get to the stick?
SOLUTION: Recall that given distance d, rate r and time t, then d = rt, or t = d/r.
If we let x be distance from point A that Elvis should travel before
√ entering the water,
then 10 − x is the distance that Elvis runs on the beach, and x2 + 49 is the distance
Elvis has to swim. That gives the total time:
√
x2 + 49 10 − x
T (x) = + 0 ≤ x ≤ 10
2 3
We want to minimize T on the closed interval given, so first we find the critical points,
then build a table. The critical points are:
dT x 1 √ 14
= √ 2 − =0 ⇒ 3x = 2 x2 + 49 ⇒ x= √
dx 2 x + 49 3 5
(we discard the negative solution). Now build a table:
√
x 0 14/ 5 10
T 6.833 5.94 6.10
√
Therefore, Elvis minimizes his overall time by first running 10 − 14/ 5 ≈ 3.74 meters,
then swimming the remaining 9.39 meters for a total of 6.10 seconds.

NOTE: Since you wouldn’t have a calculator on the exam, I would try to make sure
the numbers worked out better than this.