MCV 4U Date_________

OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

1. A carpenter is building an open box with a square base for holding firewood. The box must have a surface area
of 8 m2. What dimensions will yield the maximum volume? What is the maximum volume?
{side length 1.63m, height, 0.82 m volume 2.18 m3}

2. A rectangular rose garden will be surrounded on 3 sides by a brick wall and by a fence on the fourth side. The
area of the garden will be 1000 m2. The cost of the brick wall is $192/m. The cost of the fencing is $48/m. Find the
dimensions of the garden so that the cost of the materials is as small as possible. {40 m by 25 m}

3. A farmer has 60 m of fencing to enclose a rectangular pen beside a large barn. The farmer uses the wall of the
barn as one side of the fence. Find the dimensions of the maximum area that can be enclosed. {30 m by 15
m}

4. A log cabin is to be built with two equal rooms of area 12 m 2 each. What is the best shape for the cabin, so that
the total length of walls and partition is a minimum? {2 rooms, 3m by 4m}

5. Find the greatest possible area of a cabin with three equal rectangular rooms, if the total length of walls and
partitions is 96 m. {288 m 2 }

6. A builder must subdivide four adjacent rectangular building lots, each of 540 m 2 , and enclose them with fences.
If the back and side fencing costs $10/ meter and the front fencing costs $20/ meter, find the least cost he must
incur? {$3600}

7. A printed page of total area 320 m 2 has top and side margins of 2 cm and a bottom margin of 3 cm. Find the
dimensions of the page that make the area of print a maximum. {16 cm by 20 cm}

8. A rectangular metal plate 20 cm by 40 cm will have a square cut from each corner, and the flaps formed will bend
upward at right angles to make an open topped rectangular box. Find the dimensions of the box in order to have a
volume that will be a maximum. { 4.2 cm  11.5 cm  31.5 cm }

9. Find the length of the sides of the isosceles triangle of greatest area that has a perimeter of 18 cm. {6cm/side}

10. A sector of a circle whose radius is r and whose angle is  has a fixed perimeter P. Find the values of r and 
P
so that the area of the sector is a maximum. {r  ,  2 radians }
4

11. An open rectangular box is to made with a square base and a volume of 4000 cm3 . Find the dimensions of the
box so that the side and bottom material for it will have a minimum area. {20 cm by 20 cm by 10 cm}

12. Find the circular cylinder of greatest volume that can be inscribed in a sphere of radius 6 cm.
{h = 6.9 cm, r = 4.9 cm}

13. Find the circular cylinder of greatest volume that can be inscribed in a right circular cone with altitude 20 cm and
diameter of base 10 cm. { h  6 2 3 cm, r  3 1 3 cm }

14. Find the rectangular solid of greatest volume that can be inscribed in a square pyramid of altitude 12 m and a
square base of sides 18 m. {12 m by 12 m by 4m}

15. A Norman window contains a rectangular pane of glass surmounted with a semi-circular pane with diameter
equal to the topmost side of the rectangle. Find the dimensions of a Norman window of perimeter 12 m which has
the greatest possible area of glass. {r = 1.68 m}

16. A piece of wire 100 cm long is divided into two pieces. One piece is used to form a circle and the other a square.
Find the lengths of wire cut so that the combined area of the circle and the square is a minimum. {44 cm and 56
cm}
17. An opened topped cylindrical container has a volume of 24 cm3 . If the cost of the material used for the bottom
is three times the cost of the material used for the curved part, find the dimensions that will minimize the cost.
{ r  2 cm, h  6 cm }

18. A steel storage tank for propane gas is to be constructed in the shape of a cylinder with a hemisphere on each
end . If the desired capacity is 100 m3 , what dimensions will require the least amount of steel? {sphere radius =
2.88 m}

19. A local bus company carries 600 passengers a day at a flat rate of $1.50. If the fare is raised by $0.05, 40 fewer
people travel by bus. What fare should be charged to produce the greatest gross income for the bus company?
{$1.10-$1.15}

20. A company can sell 5000 chocolate bars a month at $0.50 each. If they raise the price to $0.70, sales drop to
4000 bars per month. The company has fixed costs of $1000 per month and $0.25 for manufacturing each bar.
What price will maximize the profit? {$0.90}

21. A convenience store currently sells 240 bags of milk weekly at a price of $3.50 each. Sales predictions indicate
that each $0.25 decrease in price will increase sales by 60 bags weekly. If the store pays $2 for each bag of milk:
a) what price will maximize profit? {$3.25}
b) what price will maximize revenue? {$2.25}

22. A merchant can sell 60 items per day when he charges $1.60 for that item. He has observed that for every 2¢
drop in the price there will be 5 extra items sold per day. What price should he charge in order to Maximize his
revenue per
day for that item? What is this maximum revenue, and how many items will be sold? {$0.92, $211.60, 230 items}

23. A ship anchored 9 km offshore. Opposite a point 5 km further along the straight shore, another ship is anchored
3 km offshore. A boat from the second ship must drop a passenger on shore and then proceed to the first ship.
What is the shortest distance that the boat must travel? {13 km}

24. A farmer is located 12 km from the nearest point of a straight railway,. The railway company agrees to put in a
siding at any place the farmer designates, and to haul his produce from there to the town for 5¢ per ton per km. The
town is 80 km from the point nearest him. If he can haul by wagon for 13 ¢ per ton per km on a straight road to the
siding, where should he ask to have the siding placed in order to minimize transportation costs? {75 km from
town}

25. Ship A leaves port at noon and sail due north at 10 knots. Ship B starts at noon but from a point 80 Nautical
miles east of the port and sails west at 6 knots. At what time is the distance between the ships a minimum? {3:32
pm}

26. A sailing ship is 25 Nautical miles due north of a drifting derelict vessel. If the ship sails south at 4 knots while
the derelict drifts east at 3 knots, find the distance of closest approach of the two ships. {15 Nautical
miles}

27. A canoeist is 300m offshore and wishes to land and then walk to a distant point on the straight shoreline. If she
can paddle at 3 km/h and walk at 5 km/h, where should she land to minimize her travel time? {225 m
along shore}

28. At 3 pm, boat A leaves harbour and heads south at 6 km/h. Also at 3 pm, boat B is 30 km east of the harbour
and is headed west at 8 km/h. Determine the minimum distance between the ships and the time when this occurs.
{18 km at 5:24 pm}

29. An electric utility is required to run a cable from a transformer station on the shore of a lake to an island. The
island is 6 km from the shore and the station is 12 km down the shoreline from a point opposite the island. It costs
$4000/km to run cable on land, and $5000/km underwater. Find the path the cable should take for minimum cost of
installation. What is the minimum cost? {4 km along shore and then 10 km to the
island, cost $66000}