To Pipeline CEO,

Our investigators and mathematicians have surveyed the current situation

regarding the oil pipeline that your company wishes to construct from your well to your
refinery. We have concluded from mathematical investigation that the optimal route to
minimize cost for construction materials, private land costs, as well as BLM costs will be
to build the pipeline in a route that crosses private ground at an angle and then
proceeds to the refinery on a straight track of BLM ground. You will need to construct
approximately 18.54 miles of pipeline along the private ground until your line has
reached BLM land, and then proceed approximately 29.08 miles towards your refinery.
The calculated cost for construction is $30,310,795.31, which is the combined costs of
pipeline construction, private ground access, and BLM access. This cost is significantly
less than using other routes such as drilling through the mountain adjacent to your well
and then using BLM ground , by using only BLM ground to take a longer route around
private ground to your refinery, using only private ground to construct your pipeline the
shortest distance, or by using a straight route across private ground and then using
BLM ground to the refinery. The costs for these scenarios are $31,640,000 ,
$32,500,000 , $36,312,015.92 and $32,750,000 respectively. As you can see, our
method of construction yields the lowest cost of construction by a margin of over 1
million dollars.
The methods by which we have reached this conclusion were by using
differentiation tools from calculus based mathematics as well as supplementary
trigonometric skills with algebra being applied when needed. We first created an
equation that sets the cost of your pipeline equal to 2 separate variables, the miles
across BLM ground and the miles across private ground. We then used trigonometry to
test a method for the optimal route of an angled route across private ground. We then
used differentiation to find the minimum cost of the equation, and thus the optimal cost
for construction.
Example problems such as these have shown us how useful calculus can be.
Without simple methods such as differentiation, we might have never known how to
minimize costs in a real world problem such as construction, that many of us may
encounter in our future careers. Calculus and mathematics in general are a very useful
tool that when used and applied properly, can no doubt save money or valuable
resources in our economy. As we reflect on this past academic semester, our group can
conclude that this course was a valuable asset in our future careers and academic
interests.
Sincerely,
Stephen Denton
Abby Jolley
Braden Smith