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Fri 12 Mar, 2004 10:47 pm
I need help in answering this question:
What is the largest possible product of two nonnegative numbers whose sum is 1?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Is it not .5 and .5? I'm confused.
Differentiating x(1-x) and setting the result to zero to look for extrema, the result is x = .5.
0.25
x + y = 1
x.y > 0
y = 1 - x
x.(1 - x) > 0 or x - x^2 > 0
Differentiate with respect to x to get turning points
f'(x) = 1 - 2x = 0 or 1 = 2x, x = 1/2
therefore y = 1 - 1/2 = 1/2 at the max point
Product = x.y = 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4 or 0.25