Practice IB Mathematics Applications & Interpretation (AI) Topic SL 5.7—optimisation with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for SL 5.7—optimisation and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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A conical frustum is designed as a water reservoir with a smaller circular top of radius , a larger circular base of radius , and height . The volume of the frustum is fixed at .
Show that the height can be expressed as .
Derive an expression for the total surface area (including top and bottom) in terms of .
Use technology to find the value of that minimizes the surface area, and calculate the minimum surface area. Justify that this gives a minimum.
Determine the slant height of the frustum at the minimum surface area.
An open-top tank with a square base is designed to have a total surface area of . Let the side length of the square base be metres, and the height of the tank be metres, as shown in the figure below.
Show that the height of the tank can be expressed as:
Write an expression for the volume of the tank in terms of only.
Use differentiation to find the value of that maximises the volume of the tank.
Calculate the height of the tank when the volume is maximised, and hence determine the maximum volume.
State whether they should replace the cone-shaped containers with cylinder-shaped containers. Justify your conclusion.
A chocolatier is designing a closed cylindrical gift tin that must hold a volume of of chocolates. The metal for the lid and base costs 2 cents per square centimetre, while the metal for the curved side costs 1 cent per square centimetre. Let and be the radius and height, in cm, and let be the total cost in cents. The company wants to minimize the manufacturing cost of the tin.
Find an expression for the total cost of the tin in terms of the radius and height .
Given the volume is , find in terms of .
Find the radius that minimizes the total cost.
A school is designing an open-topped planter box with a square base that must hold of soil. The material for the base costs 18 cents per square decimetre and the material for the four sides costs 7 cents per square decimetre. Let the side length of the base be dm, the height be dm, and the total cost be cents.
Find an expression for the total cost of the planter box in terms of and .
Given the volume is , find in terms of .
Find the value of that minimizes the total cost.