The productivity of a company during the day is given by Q(t) = -t^3 + 9t^2 +12t at time t minutes after 8 o'clock in the morning. At what time is the company most productive?

Linda Peters

Linda Peters

Answered question

2022-09-20

The productivity of a company during the day is given by Q ( t ) = - t 3 + 9 t 2 + 12 t at time t minutes after 8 o'clock in the morning. At what time is the company most productive?

Answer & Explanation

r2t1orrso

r2t1orrso

Beginner2022-09-21Added 8 answers

The productivity is given as:
Q ( t ) = - t 3 + 9 t 2 + 12 t
To find the optimum productivity we seek a critical point of Q(t), and would expect to find a maxima.
Differentiating wrt t gives:
d Q d t = - 3 t 2 + 18 t + 12
At a critical point d Q d t = 0
- 3 t 2 + 18 t + 12 = 0
t 2 - 6 t - 4 = 0
t = 3 ± 13
We require t > 0 t = 3 + 13
We can do a second derivative test to verify this is a maximum;
d 2 Q d t 2 = - 6 t + 18
When t = 3 + 13 d 2 Q d t 2 < 0 maximum
Thus the maximum productivity occurs when t = 3 + 13
i.e. t 6.60555 ... which correspond to a duration of 6h36m
As t=0 was t 8AM then the optimum production time would be 2:36 pm

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