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I am in charge of some practice lesson for Calculus II. I have to show how to apply the theory for unconstrained optimization (mainly Hessian analysis) and constrained optimization (Lagrange multipliers).

I'd like to use functions and boundaries taken from the real world. These examples must be easy and solvable and they should appear 'not-too-boring' to students.

Do you have any suggestion?

JTP - Apologise to Monica
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Surfer on the fall
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    For "real life" example of undergraduate math topics (and high school math topics too) try COMAP https://www.comap.com – Gerald Edgar Apr 20 '19 at 14:59
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    By "real world", will you accept examples that are merely potentially real (involving believable scenarios and real objects), or do you want problems that someone got paid to solve? – Nick C Apr 30 '19 at 19:28
  • @Nick I'm interested in the first case.. Problems should be easy to solve for undergrad students: they have to be believable but not effectively realistic.. – Surfer on the fall May 02 '19 at 06:21
  • See also https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/1550/optimization-problems-that-todays-students-might-actually-encounter?rq=1 – Chris Cunningham Aug 20 '19 at 16:43

2 Answers2

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Typical constrained optimization (useful to "get it") is asking for the rectangle of largest area that can be enclosed in a fence of given length. Sure, it can be reduced to one-dimensional, but leave that option out. Or ask for the largest volume box with given surface area.

vonbrand
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There are a few examples in Physics. Lagrangian Mechanics

David
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