Math Problem: Happy Halloween

[gentry_joey]

Here's a spooky problem to ponder -- if you dare! The ghoulish inhabitants of a ghost town decide to build themselves a new home -- that is, a brand new cemetery. They have scraped together $10,000 (by selling their gold fillings and haunting their rich living relatives). They plan to use as much of the vacant land north of Creepy Street as they need, but they will need to build a rectangular fence around the new cemetery. On the three sides of the rectangle not facing Creepy Street they will use materials costing $10 per foot of fence. But on the one side which borders Creepy Street, they need more expensive materials costing $15 per foot. In order to make their new home as large as possible in area, what dimensions should they choose for the rectangular cemetery? Remember, they have $10,000 to spend on the fence.

[TOAD6147]

222.22 ft. sq....give or take.
BTW, you gave no info that I could find to base a rectangle on (like proportioning or ratio) so all I could come up with is a square

[gentry_joey]

well its not 222.222. These problems come straight from the univeristy so they are alll solvible.

[Computer]

hmm. I got 222 at first but i can see how that thats wrong. I tried It has something to do with finding the maximum height of the parabola but i am not to sure what to do with the $15 dollar side. i will ask my teacher tommorrow.

[Computer]

hmm. 400 x 5000 feet??? that not right. I'll keep trying.

[Gomer]

200 feet on creepy street, 250 feet on the perpendicular side.

50,000 ft^2 @ $10,000

tell yer teach to give me the extra credit =)

[pinoy87]

Gomer...that will equal to $10500 spent though.

I also got 222.22ft on each side making it about 49380 feet squared. A square is also a rectangle just a rectangle with equal sides.

[Gomer]

200*$15+200*$10+250*$10+250*$10=$10,000

the answer is 200 feet on creepy street and the backlot, and 250 feet for the sidelots.

50,000 ft^2 @ $10,000

In this sort of problem the answer is obviously not a square because the differing cost per foot for one side.

[pinoy87]

woops...sorry Gomer I made a little math mistake.

[Gomer]

don't sweat it... happens to the best of us.