Lone Depot and Homes are two competing home improvement stores. Each claims to provide customers with a cost effective, versatile rectangular storage container with a square base and a volume of 36 ft (see the diagram below). Each company has determined they want to use the same type of materials to construct the containers. The material for the sides and top of each container costs $2/ft2, and the material for the bottom costs $4/ft?. y Lone Depot claims that the minimum cost of producing such a container with the desired volume of 36 ft³ can be obtained if the dimensions of the container are 2.5 ft by 2.5 ft by 5.76 ft. However, Homes claims that the minimum cost of producing such a container can be obtained if the dimensions of the container are 4 ft by 4 ft by 2.25 ft. 1. Which company's proposed dimensions are better? In other words, which will result in a lower cost of constructing each container? Justify your answer. 2. Determine whether either of these company’s dimensions are the best. In other words, determine the dimensions that would minimize the cost of producing each storage container, as well as the minimum cost.
Minimization
In mathematics, traditional optimization problems are typically expressed in terms of minimization. When we talk about minimizing or maximizing a function, we refer to the maximum and minimum possible values of that function. This can be expressed in terms of global or local range. The definition of minimization in the thesaurus is the process of reducing something to a small amount, value, or position. Minimization (noun) is an instance of belittling or disparagement.
Maxima and Minima
The extreme points of a function are the maximum and the minimum points of the function. A maximum is attained when the function takes the maximum value and a minimum is attained when the function takes the minimum value.
Derivatives
A derivative means a change. Geometrically it can be represented as a line with some steepness. Imagine climbing a mountain which is very steep and 500 meters high. Is it easier to climb? Definitely not! Suppose walking on the road for 500 meters. Which one would be easier? Walking on the road would be much easier than climbing a mountain.
Concavity
In calculus, concavity is a descriptor of mathematics that tells about the shape of the graph. It is the parameter that helps to estimate the maximum and minimum value of any of the functions and the concave nature using the graphical method. We use the first derivative test and second derivative test to understand the concave behavior of the function.
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