MATH 200, Homework 6

1. (a) Find all critical points of the function

f (x, y) = 4x2 + 3y 2 + 4xy − 4x + 2y

(b) Use the second derivative test to classify the critical points as either min, max, or a saddle
point. If it is a max/min, is a global max/min? Briefly explain why/why not.
Answer. (a)

fx = 8x + 4y − 4 = 0
fy = 6y + 4x + 2 = 0
x = 1, y = −1.

Only one critical point at (x, y) = (1, −1) .

2
(b) fxx = 8, fyy = 6, fxy = 4. Then D = fxx fyy − fxy = 48 − 16 = 32 > 0 and fxx > 0 so it’s a
local min. But then it’s also a global min since this is the only critical point.
2. (a) Use the method of Lagrange multiplier to find the extremum of the function f (x, y, z) = 2x+y+z
subject to the constraint xyz = 1 and x, y, z ≥ 0.
(b) The extremum you found, does it correspond to a maximum or a minimum?
Answer. (a) Setting it up Lagrange multipier, we have

2 = λyz
1 = λxz
1 = λxy
xyz = 1.

Eliminating λ we get y = 2x, z = y, 4x3 = 1 which yields (x, y, z) = 4−1/3 , 2 · 4−1/3 , 2 · 4−1/3 ,

with f (x, y, z) = 3 · 2 · 4−1/3 = 3.7798.

(b) It corresponds to a minimum. The maximum is infinity by taking say x → 0+ , y = 1, z = 1/x
which makes f blow up.
3. Find the minimum and maximum of the function f (x, y) = x2 + 2y 2 − 2x − 4y inside a triangular
domain D = {(x, y) : x + y ≤ 4, x ≥ 0, y ≥ 0}. (you need to check the boundaries and interior for
max/min).
Answer.

• Interior critical points:

fx = 2x − 2 = 0, fy = 4y − 4 = 0
so that
(x, y) = (1, 1)
which is in the interior. At that point, f (1, 1) = −3.
• Boundary x = 0, y ∈ [0, 4] :
2
f (0, y) = 2y 2 − 4y = 2 (y − 1) − 2

has min at y = 1, (with f (0, 1) = −2) max at y = 4 (with f (0, 4) = 16).

• Boundary y = 0, x ∈ [0, 4] :
2
f (0, y) = x2 − 2x = (x − 1) − 1

has min at x = 1, (with f (1, 0) = −1) max at x = 4 (with f (4, 0) = 8).

1
 • Boundary y = 4 − x, x ∈ [0, 4]:
2
f (x, 4 − x) = x2 + 2 (4 − x) − 2x − 4 (4 − x)
d
f (x, 4 − x) = 6x − 14 = 0 ⇐⇒ x = 7/3
dx
It has critical point at x = 7/3 (which corresponds to a min, with f = − 31 there) and a max
at (x, y) = (0, 4) (why?)
• In conclusion, the max occurs at the corner (0, 4) and the min occurs at the interior point
(1, 1) . The max value is 16, the min value is -3.

4. You want to make box with volume 16 m3 . The material for the sides costs half of what the material
for the top or bottom cost. Find the dimensions that will minimize the cost.
Answer. Solution 1 (the hard way): For the box of height z and whose other dimensions are
x, y, the cost is proportional to
f (x, y, z) = yz + xz + 2xy.
So we wish to minimize f (x, y, z) subject to the constraint xyz = 16. Setting this up using Lagrange
multiplier, we need to solve these four equations in four unknowns x, y, z, λ:

z + 2y = λyz
z + 2x = λxz
y + x = λxy
xyz = 16.

After some algebra, we find the only possible real solution is

λ = 1, x, y = 2, z = 4.

Solution 2 (the easy way): By symmetry, the base of the box should be a square. Let x be one
of the dimensions of this square and let z be the height of the box. Then the cost is proportional
to f (x, z) = x2 + xz. We wish to minimize this f (x, z) subject to constraint x2 z = 16. Solve for
z = 16/x2 then f = x2 + 16/x, x ∈ [0, 4] . The min of this one-dimensional function occurs at
2x − 16/x2 = 0 or x3 = 8 or x = 2, z = 4.
5. The plane x + y + 2z = 2 intersects the surface z = x2 + y 2 . Find the point on the intersection of
these two surfaces which is (a) closest to z-axis and (b) furthest away from the z-axis.
Answer. We wish to extremize f (x, y) = x2 + y 2 (i.e. distance squared to the z-axis) subject to
two constraints g = x + y + 2z − 2 = 0, h = x2 + y 2 − z = 0. So we need to solve five equations:
∇f = λ∇g + µ∇h, g = h = 0 in five unknowns (x, y, z, λ, µ) :

2x = λ + µ2x
2y = λ + µ2y
0 = 2λ − µ
z = x2 + y 2
x + y + 2z = 2.

Eliminate λ, µ from the first three equations yields (1 + 4x) y = (1 + 4y) x. Together with the last
two, this yields two solutions
 
1 1 1
(x, y, z) = (−1, −1, 2) and (x, y, z) = , , .
2 2 2

Of course the former is the max of f and the latter is its min.