Where to Build the Dock

Problem

figure

As shown in the figure, an aquaculture center is located on an island AA. Two towns BB and CC lie on a straight coastline with BC=70BC=70 km, and AB=30AB=30 km, AC=80AC=80 km. The center employs 300300 workers who live in town BB and 500500 workers who live in town CC. A dock DD is to be built on segment BCBC: every worker first travels by land from their town to DD, and then by water from DD to AA. Per hundred people per kilometer, the cost of water transport is half the cost of land transport.

1. Find sinABC\sin\angle ABC.

2. Let ADB=θ\angle ADB=\theta. Determine the value of θ\theta for which the total transport cost is smallest.

Answer

Solution

Difficulty5/10
TopicsLaw of Sines, trigonometry, Law of Cosines

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