Finding Maximums and Minimums

In this unit, we explore tasks that require the calculation of maximum and minimum values. Our tasks take the form of story problems that require us to optimize a measurement / quantity related to a particular object. In other words, the tasks require us to determine the situation in which something is as large as possible (such as profit, volume of a container, etc.) or as small as possible (cost, amount of material needed, time of travel, etc.). Such problems have a variety of real-world applications in diverse areas such as finance, engineering, and economics.
Finding Maximums and Minimums