# How To Solve Calculus Word Problems

Notice, by the way, that so far in our solution we haven’t used any Calculus at all.

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Your first job is to develop a function that represents the quantity you want to optimize. Campbell for his specific research into students’ learning of Optimization: “College Student Difficulties with Applied Optimization Problems in Introductory Calculus,” unpublished masters thesis, The University of Maine, 2013.] access to step-by-step solutions to most textbook problems, probably including yours; (2) answers from a math expert about specific questions you have; AND (3) 30 minutes of free online tutoring.

Below is a math problem solver that lets you input a wide variety of calculus problems and it will provide the final answer for free. The version below will show you the final answer only.

We’ve already found the relevant radius, $r = \sqrt[3]\,.$To find the corresponding height, recall that in the Subproblem above we found that since the can must hold a volume of liquid, its height is related to its radius according to $$h = \dfrac\,.$$ Hence when $r = \sqrt[3]\,,$ $\begin h &= \frac\,\frac \\[8px] &= \frac\,\frac \\[8px] &= \frac\,\frac \\[8px] &= 2^\frac \\[8px] h &= 2^\sqrt[3] \quad \triangleleft \end$ The preceding expression for is correct, but we can gain a nice insight by noticing that $$2^ = 2 \cdot\frac$$ and so $\begin h &= 2^\sqrt[3] \\[8px] &= 2 \cdot\frac\,\sqrt[3] \\[8px] &= 2 \sqrt[3] = 2r \end$ since recall that the ideal radius is $r = \sqrt[3]\,.$ Hence the ideal height (height and radius) will minimize the cost of metal to construct the can?

The first stage doesn’t involve Calculus at all, while by contrast the second stage is just a max/min problem that you recently learned how to solve: single variable. You’ll use your usual Calculus tools to find the critical points, determine whether each is a maximum or minimum, and so forth. In Optimization problems, always begin by sketching the situation. If nothing else, this step means you’re not staring at a blank piece of paper; instead you’ve started to craft your solution.

The problem asks us to minimize the cost of the metal used to construct the can, so we’ve shown each piece of metal separately: the can’s circular top, cylindrical side, and circular bottom.For instance, a few weeks ago you could have gotten this as a standard max/min homework problem: You would probably automatically find the derivative $A'(r)$ (which you could equivalently write as $\dfrac)$, then find the critical points, then determine whether each represents a maximum or a minimum for the function, and so forth.That’s exactly what we’re now going to do in Stage II. ) Remember that is just a constant — it’s some number, like 355.You'll see a button "View steps" and this takes you to the developer's site where you can purchase the full version of the solver (where you can see the steps). I was homeschooled (that's not the confession part), and in 8th grade my algebra textbook had the answers to half the problems in the back. That seems to be the premise behind app called Socratic. The app lets you take a picture of a problem (you can also type it in, but that's a little laborious), and it'll not only give you an answer, but the steps necessary to to arrive at that answer — and even detailed explanations of the steps and concepts if you need them. Of course, cheating at math is a terrible way to learn, because the whole point isn't to know the answer to 2x 2 = 7x - 5, it's to understand the learn?The app is actually designed to answer any kind of school question — science, history, etc. For other kinds of questions, Socratic kind of does a bit of Googling, and in my experience can typically find similar word problems on the wide internet, or from its own database of answers.” We have provided those two dimensions, and so we are done.$\checkmark$We’ve now illustrated the steps we use to solve every single Optimization problem we encounter, and they always work. The first does not involve Calculus at all; the second is identical to what you did for max/min problems.Typical phrases that indicate an Optimization problem include: Before you can look for that max/min value, you first have to develop the function that you’re going to optimize.There are thus two distinct Stages to completely solve these problems—something most students don’t initially realize [Ref]. Now maximize or minimize the function you just developed.