- #1
Michele Nunes
- 42
- 2
Homework Statement
The surface area of a cell in a honeycomb is S = 6hs + (3s2/2)((√3 - cosθ)/sinθ) where h and s are positive constants and θ is the angle at which the upper faces meet the altitude of the cell. Find the angle θ (π/6 ≤ θ ≤ π/2) that minimizes the surface area S.
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution
Okay so first I took the derivative of the equation and the (3s2/2) isn't relevant since there's no θ involved so I'm going to disregard that part. Once simplified, on the numerator I obtained (1 - √3cosθ) and on the denominator just sin2θ but all the thetas that would make the denominator = 0 are not in the given domain of theta so then I focused on the numerator. The theta that would make the numerator = 0 is cos-1(1/√3) which should end up being the theta that gives the minimum value for the surface area, however the back of the book says theta should = (√3)/3 and I'm not sure where they got that value from.