Question

An offshore oil well is 2 kilometers off the coast. The refinery is 4 kilometers down the coast. Laying pipe in the ocean is twice as expensive as laying it on land. What path should the pipe follow in order to minimize the cost?

Answer 1

Answer:

Rectangular path

Solution:

As per the question:

Length, a = 4 km

Height, h = 2 km

In order to minimize the cost let us denote the side of the square bottom be 'a'

Thus the area of the bottom of the square, A = $a^{2}$

Let the height of the bin be 'h'

Therefore the total area, $A_{t} = 4ah$

The cost is:

C = 2sh

Volume of the box, V = $a^{2}h = 4^{2}\times 2 = 128$            (1)

Total cost, $C_{t} = 2a^{2} + 2ah$            (2)

From eqn (1):

$h = \frac{128}{a^{2}}$

Using the above value in eqn (1):

$C(a) = 2a^{2} + 2a\frac{128}{a^{2}} = 2a^{2} + \frac{256}{a}$

$C(a) = 2a^{2} + \frac{256}{a}$

Differentiating the above eqn w.r.t 'a':

$C'(a) = 4a - \frac{256}{a^{2}} = \frac{4a^{3} - 256}{a^{2}}$

For the required solution equating the above eqn to zero:

$\frac{4a^{3} - 256}{a^{2}} = 0$

$\frac{4a^{3} - 256}{a^{2}} = 0$

a = 4

Also

$h = \frac{128}{4^{2}} = 8$

The path in order to minimize the cost must be a rectangle.