6. The relationship between marginal and average costs Consider the following scenario to understand the relationship between marginal and average values. Suppose Shen is a professional basketball player, and his game log for free throws can be summarized in the following table. Fill la the columns with Shah's freethrow percentage for each game andr his overall freethrow average aer each game. Game Game Result Total Game Free-Throw Percentage Average Free-Th row Percentage 1 8/10 8/10 80 80 2 6/10 14/20 S E 3 1/5 15/25 S E 4 3/5 13/30 S E 5 8/10 25/40 S E On the following graph, use the orange points (square symbol) to plot Shen's free-throw percentage for each game individually, and use the green points (triangle symbol) to plot his overall average free-throw percentage after each game. Note: Plot your points in the order in which you would like them connected. Line segments will connect the points automatically. 100 90 Game Free-Throw Percentage 70 60 Average Free-Throw Percentage 50 FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE 30 20 10 2 3 GAME You can think of the result in any one game as being Shen's marginal free-throw percentage. Based on your previous answer, you can deduce that when Shen's marginal free-throw percentage is below the average, the average must be You can now apply this analysis to production costs. For a U-shaped average total cost curve, when the marginal cost curve is below the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be . Also, when the marginal cost curve is above the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be . Therefore, the marginal cost curve intersects the average total cost curve