Dylan G.

Magana
STM18

Discourse #02: Basic Concepts of Derivatives

Part 01

John joined a local summer group in building a flower

statue for the town festival. Unfortunately, the group
ran out of some flowers in the middle of the project.
Since it was for the festival, the group has a sponsor
shop that supplied them flowers for free and gave
them additional 200 flowers but it cannot deliver that
day. He volunteered to pick up the additional flowers.
The group needed blue flowers along with 5 different
shades of yellow flowers. How many blue and yellow
flowers does he need to get?
 01 Form an equation representing the problem.

Set the two flowers as different variables.

Equation representing
the problem.

maximize in order to
acquire the maximum
This "helper equation" derived amount of flowers
from the main equation can needed.
help in finding the maximum
value of x and y. 
02 Maximize.

Substitute the
derived value of x.

Differentiate.
03 Find the Critical Value.

Equate the
function to zero.

Isolate y.

Check.
04 Solve for x.

Use the derived equation.

Substitute the
value of y.

John needs to pick up 100 blue flowers and

20 flowers for each shades of yellow.
Reflection:
Calculus can be used to determine an
optimal plan for a dilemma. In the
problem, for example, John applied the
concept of Extreme Values and
Optimization to come up with the
optimal amount for each flower and
saved him a trip or two. It also allowed
the group to potentially finish the
project in a shorter time. Calculus can
offer or make better options in
everyday problems.
Reference/s:
Numberbender 2017. Solving Optimization
Problems | Calculus | Paano?. Youtube
[accessed 2021];
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kzvsog_7O
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