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A painter wants to paint a picture (rectangular portrait) occupying 72 square inches on a canvas allowing a margin of 4 inches on the top and at the bottom and 2 inches on each side. What will be the smallest dimension of the canvas?
Explanation
To find the smallest canvas area, let the dimensions of the rectangular picture be x (width) and y (height). The area of the picture is xy = 72 square inches.
The canvas dimensions include the margins: width W = x + 2 + 2 = x + 4, and height H = y + 4 + 4 = y + 8. The area of the canvas A is given by:
A = (x + 4)(y + 8)
Substituting y = 72/x into the equation:
A = (x + 4)(72/x + 8) = 72 + 8x + 288/x + 32 = 104 + 8x + 288/x
To minimize the area, we differentiate A with respect to x and set it to zero:
dA/dx = 8 - 288/x2 = 0 → x2 = 36 → x = 6 inches.
If x = 6, then y = 72/6 = 12. The canvas dimensions are (6 + 4) = 10" and (12 + 8) = 20". The area is 200 square inches, which is the smallest among the given options.