An oil spill has fouled 200 miles of Pacific shoreline. The company responsible has been ordered to clean the mess. Each clean-up crew costs $13000 to bring in, and $500 per crew per day. Each crew can clean 1 mile of shoreline per day. To encourage a speedy cleanup, the government is levying a fine of $3000 per day against the company.

imagine that you are a government EPA analyst, trying to determine the fine-per-day to impose upon the company. Knowing that the company will want to minimize their costs, by adjusting the fine-per-day you can affect what number of crews will be in the company's best interest to bring in. This in turn will affect the number of days taken for cleanup.
Rewrite your equation from above, replacing the $3000 fine with the constant f. Your equation will involve both the variable x and the constant f
C(x) =

Determine the number of crews that should be brought into minimize the cost to the company as a function of the fine amount.
crews(f) =     

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Step 1 Ask the question Variables c number of additional crews t time to clean up spill days T total cost of cleanup F fine Assumptions T 500 t 18000 800 t c F 200 5 7 c 1 t F 0 if t 14 c is a nonnega... View the full answer