Quote of the Day:
"The value of an education ... is not the learning of many 
   facts but the training of the mind to think something 
   that cannot be learned from textbooks."  
   -- Albert Einstein

Objectives:
The student will solve applied maxima/minima problems.

1. Collect Homework.

2. Prelude to the Spider and the Fly:
   Materials Needed:
     Big Screen TV set
     string or tape measure

   Problem: A bug on the back left corner of the TV crawls 
            to the bottom right front corner.  What is the 
            shortest distance of its path?

       

            Have students work on this problem to get an 
            answer. Then discuss the answers.  Show how
            to solve this max/min problem using a 
            geometrical model:

       

The green path goes across the top and down the 
            front of the TV.  The red path goes across the 
            top and down the side.  Use the Pythagorean 
            Theorem to solve the right triangles containing 
            these lines:

       

         So, the shortest distance is approximately 6.4".
     
         Now, measure the Big Screen TV with a piece of 
         string or a tape measure. Put the string from 
         corner to corner – it will minimize the distance 
         naturally!   Just another case where nature takes 
         over in the minimization process.  

4. Assignment: Max/Min Review Puzzle
       

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