I think their answer would be "why would I care how long it takes this ladder to slide down the wall?" Which STINKS don't get me wrong. This is not a group I take seriously.

▲

tarpitt a day ago | parent [-]

Here is an example of a practical optimization problem:

A factory needs to produce 12,000 components per year. Each production run costs $300 to set up, and storing one component costs $4 per year. What production quantity Q minimizes the annual setup and storage costs?

▲

BoxwoodSeed 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Just like all school problems of this nature I have ever seen, the question lacks precision.

How long does a production run take and how many units can you do in a single sun? Since this isn't mentioned, the answer is to produce everything at the last second of the year. But we are also missing information on why the factory needs to produce 12,000 components in a year and for whom and about the logistics involved in getting those components to the buyer.

I always hated these type of questions for their lack of precision. You haven't even mentioned how many units in a single production run will be faulty and need to be scrapped instead of delivered, how am I supposed to optimize anything?!

▲

normie3000 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Can you do a single run on the last day of the year?

	▲	gshubert17 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, but to be able to fulfill all the year's orders (expected to total 12,000) a single run would have to be on the first day of the year. Setup cost = 300. Now we have 12,000 components to store. If the orders come in steadily, the last component will be sold on the last day of the year. Average quantity stored over the whole year will be 6,000 components. So storage will cost 24,000. Total cost 24,300. Doing one run each month (quantity = 1,000 a month) would entail setup costs of 3,600. And storage costs of 4 * average storage of 500 components = 2,000. For a total cost of 5,600. All according to the given model, of course, but I think this is the general idea.