Steiner's calculus problem

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Steiner's problem, asked and answered by

maximum of the function

[1]

It is named after Jakob Steiner.

The maximum is at , where e denotes the base of the natural logarithm. One can determine that by solving the equivalent problem of maximizing

Applying the

first derivative test, the derivative
of is

so is positive for and negative for , which implies that – and therefore – is

increasing
for and
decreasing
for Thus, is the unique
global maximum
of

References

  1. ^ Eric W. Weisstein. "Steiner's Problem". MathWorld. Retrieved December 8, 2010.