Chapter 13 Part B

Necessary Conditions for Unconstrained Optimization

Sufficient conditions for Unconstrained Optimization
Examples of Optimization

Test the following for relative maxima and minima.

a. y  18 x  23 x 3 .
Solution: y′  18  2 x 2  2(9  x 2 )  2(3  x)(3  x), y   4 x.
Solving y′  0 gives the critical values x  3. If x  3, then

y   4 3  12  0. There is a relative maximum at x  3.

If x  3, y  4  3  12  0. There is a relative minimum
when x  3.
Example Minimizing Average Cost
A manufacturer’s total-cost function is given by
q2
c  c q    3q  400
4
where c is the total cost of producing q units.
At what level of output will average cost per unit be a minimum?
What is this minimum?
Solution: The average-cost function
c is
q2
 3q  400
c 4 q 400 Here, q must be positive.
c  c q     3 .
q q 4 q

We differentiate: dc q 2  1600
 2
.
dq 4q

q 2  1600  0
(q  40)(q  40)  0, so q  40.
To determine whether this level of output gives a relative minimum, we will use
the second-derivative test:

d 2 c 800
 3 which is positive for q  40 We note that c is continuous for
dq 2 q

q  0. Since q  40 is the only relative extremum, we conclude that this

relative minimum is achieved.
The minimum average cost is given by c (40)  23.
Profit maximization
Profit maximization
Finding the first order and second order
partial derivatives
Finding the first order and second order
partial derivatives
Finding the minimum
Finding the minimum