Paper folding A rectangular sheet of 8.5 -in.-by-11-in. paper is placed on a flat surface. One of the corners is placed on the opposite longer edge, as shown in the figure, and held there as the paper is smoothed flat. The problem is to make the length of the crease as small as possible. Call the length $L$. Try it with paper.
a. Show that $L^{2}=2 x^{3} /(2 x-8.5)$
b. What value of $x$ minimizes $L^{2} ?$
c. What is the minimum value of $L ?$
FIGURE CANT COPY
Applications of Derivatives
Applied Optimizatio