Find the edges size of a regular triangular pyramid with a given volume, which has the smallest sum of edges.

87 Views Asked by At

$a\\$ - edge length at the base of the pyramid.

$b\\$ - length of the side edges of the pyramid.

$V\\$ = $const\\$.

I minimize: $3a+3b->min\\$

$V=\frac{1}{3}Sh\\$

$h=\sqrt{b^2-\frac{1}{3}a^2}\\$

$S=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}a^2\\$

$V=\frac{1}{3}*\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}a^2*\sqrt{b^2-\frac{1}{3}a^2}\\$ - from here I expressed the parameter $b\\$ and substituted in $3a+3b->min\\$

$b=\sqrt\frac{V^2+\frac{3a^6}{432}}{\frac{3a^4}{144}}\\$

After substitution, I found the derivative and equated it to zero, but the derivative was too complex, it seems to me that I am doing something wrong.

Derivative: $3+\frac{a^6-288V^2}{a^5*\sqrt{\frac{48V^2}{a^4}+\frac{a^2}{3}}}=0\\$

How to express $a\\$ from here?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

As brought up in the comments, we have that

$$ b=\sqrt{\frac{144{V^2}}{3a^4}+\frac{1}{3}a^2}. $$

You wish to minimize the function

$$ f(a)=a+\sqrt{\frac{144{V^2}}{3a^4}+\frac{1}{3}a^2} $$

by equating the derivative to zero (note that I dropped the scaling multiplication by $3$, since it does not affect the minimizer). Introducing the notation $k=144V^2/3$ and $m=1/3$, the derivative of $f$ is

$$ f'(a)=1-\frac{\big(\frac{2k}{a^5}-ma\big)}{\sqrt{\frac{k}{a^4}+ma^2}} $$

Equate this to zero, and get

$$ \sqrt{\frac{k}{a^4}+ma^2}=\frac{2k}{a^5}-ma $$

Multiply both sides by $a^5$:

$$ \sqrt{ka^6+ma^{12}}=2k-ma^6. $$

Introduce the notation $x\equiv{a^6}$, and this becomes

$$ \sqrt{mx^2+kx}=2k-mx. $$

Square both sides (at this point we need to be careful about choosing the right signs):

$$ m(1-m)x^2+k(1+4m)x-4k^2=0. $$

Solve with the quadratic formula (choose the proper sign), and substitute $x=a^6$ to get the final answer.