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1-Visitor
September 4, 2015
Question

Help needed! Solve for side lengths; Minimize perimeter with known area problem

  • September 4, 2015
  • 3 replies
  • 1469 views

I'm sorry but this is so basic... but how do you set up a sheet and solver block for this?  Perimeter = 2x + 2y    area = x*y.  What are the shortest lengths, x and y, so we can have a plot of 1000?  Thanks to all.  I know using "minimize" is key...

3 replies

24-Ruby IV
September 5, 2015

The solution is sqrt(1000).= 31.623

And with the minimize function:

ap.png

23-Emerald V
September 6, 2015

Tyler Sullivan wrote:

I'm sorry but this is so basic... but how do you set up a sheet and solver block for this?  Perimeter = 2x + 2y    area = x*y.  What are the shortest lengths, x and y, so we can have a plot of 1000?  Thanks to all.  I know using "minimize" is key...

And in case you're using Prime instead of proper Mathcad, here's the Prime 3.1 solution (with Valery's solution alongside):

It's interesting that Prime shows 31.623 but M15 doesn't (I checked in my M15 M040)....

Stuart

25-Diamond I
September 6, 2015

Looks like a bug in MC15. Same here with MC15 M030. And it has nothing to do with the units.

Solution is too far away from the square root and when CTOL is set smaller, an error is thrown (and it cannot be traced back to "no solution found"). Strange!

Have not tried but from what I saw above I guess Prime will get the correct 10,10 solution.

WE