Application of Derivatives
Application of Derivatives
In Isaac Newton's day, one of the biggest problems was poor navigation at sea. Before calculus was developed, the stars were vital for navigation. Shipwrecks occurred because the ship was not where the captain thought it should be. There was not a good enough understanding of how the Earth, stars and planets moved with respect to each other. Calculus (differentiation and integration) was developed to improve this understanding. Differentiation and integration can help us to solve many types of real-world problems in our day to day life. We use the derivative to determine the maximum and minimum values of particular functions (e.g. cost, strength, amount of material used in a building, profit, loss, etc.). Derivatives are met in many engineering and science problems, especially when modelling the behaviour of moving objects.
1. A rectangular sheet of tin 7cm x 5cm is to be made into a box without top, by cutting off squares from the corners and folding up the flaps. What should be the side of the square to be cut off so that the volume of the box is maximum ?
2. A box with a square base has no top. If 100 sq. cm of material is used, what is the maximum possible volume for the box?