Question

Suppose the total cost of producing x units of a certain commodity is c(x) = 6x4 − 30x3 − 54x2 + x + 2. determine the largest and smallest values of the marginal cost for 0 ≤ x ≤ 5.

Answer 1

To determine the marginal cost of the production, one needs to derive the given equation for the cost,

      c(x) = 6x4 - 30x3 - 54x2 + x + 2

The derivative of the equation in terms of x is as reflected below.

      c'(x) = 24x3 - 90x2 - 108x + 1

Equate the derivative to zero in order to determine the value of  x .

     c'(x) = 0 = 24x3 - 90x2 - 108 + 1

The value of x from the equation is 4.025.

Substituting x to the original equation,

     c(x) = -1254.35 and at c(0) = 2