The right triangle is formed in the first quadrant by the -axis and
-axis and a line through the point is
.
Observe the triangle :
\The slope of and
is equal to the slope of
and
.
.
(a)
\Find the length of the hypotenuse as a function of
.
Length of the hypotenuse is .
Substitute .
Length of the hypotenuse is .
(b)
\Graph :
\Graph the function and label the minimum point.
Observe the graph :
\The length of the hypotenuse is minimum when
.
(c)
\Find the vertices of the triangle such that its area is a minimum.
\The area of the right triangle is .
Substitute .
Apply derivative on each side with respect to .
.
Find the critical numbers by equating derivative to zero.
\ and
.
The value of can not be zero.
Therefore, .
Substitute in
.
.
The vertices of the triangle are and
.
(a) Length of the hypotenuse is .
(b)
\Graph:
\Graph the function .
The length of the hypotenuse is minimum when
.
(c) The vertices of the triangle are and
.