relationship between marginal and average costs Consider the following scenario to understand the relationship between marginal and average values. Suppose Raphael is a professional basketball player, and his game log for free throws can be summarized in the following table. Fill in the columns with Raphael's free-throw percentage for each game and his overall free-throw average after each game. Game Game Result Total Game Free-Throw Percentage 1 4/5 4/5 80 2 2/5 6/10 3 1/4 7/14 4 1/2 8/16 5 4/4 12/20 Average Free-Throw Percentage 80 On the following graph, use the orange points (square symbol) to plot Raphael's free-throw percentage for each game individually, and use the green points (triangle symbol) to plot his overall average free-throw percentage after each game. Note: Plot your points in the order in which you would like them connected. Line segments will connect the points automatically. FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 5 GAME Game Free-Throw Percentage Average Free-Throw Percentage You can think of the result in any one game as being Raphael's marginal free-throw percentage. Based on your previous answer, you can deduce that when Raphael's marginal free-throw percentage is below the average, the average must be You can now apply this analysis to production costs. For a U-shaped average total cost curve, when the marginal cost curve is below the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be . Also, when the marginal cost curve is above the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be . Therefore, the marginal cost curve intersects the average total cost curve