Page 139 - Calculus Workbook For Dummies
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Chapter 8
Using Differentiation to Solve
Practical Problems
In This Chapter
Optimizing space
Relating rates
Getting up to speed with position, velocity, and acceleration
Going off on a tangent
Doing 37 in your head
ow that you’re an expert at finding derivatives, I’m sure you can’t wait to put your
Nexpertise to use solving some practical problems. In this section, you find problems
that actually come up in the real world — problems like how should a cat rancher use 200
feet of fencing to build a three-sided corral next to a river (he only needs three sides
because the river makes the fourth side and cats hate water) to maximize the grazing area
for his cats?
Optimization Problems: From Soup to Nuts
Optimization problems are one of the most practical types of calculus problems. You use
the techniques shown below whenever you want to maximize or minimize something: like
maximizing profit or area or volume or minimizing cost or energy consumption, and so on.
