009B Sample Midterm 1, Problem 2

Otis Taylor plots the price per share of a stock that he owns as a function of time

and finds that it can be approximated by the function

$s(t)=t(25-5t)+18$

where $t$ is the time (in years) since the stock was purchased.

Find the average price of the stock over the first five years.

Foundations:
The average value of a function Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle f(x)} on an interval Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle [a,b]} is given by
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle f_{\text{avg}}=\frac{1}{b-a}\int_a^b f(x)~dx.}

Solution:

Step 1:
This problem wants us to find the average value of Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle s(t)} over the interval Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle [0,5].}
Using the average value formula, we have
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle s_{\text{avg}}=\frac{1}{5-0} \int_0^5 t(25-5t)+18~dt.}

Step 2:
First, we distribute to get
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle s_{\text{avg}}=\frac{1}{5} \int_0^5 25t-t^2+18~dt.}
Then, we integrate to get
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle s_{\text{avg}}=\left. \frac{1}{5}\bigg[\frac{25t^2}{2}-\frac{5t^3}{3}+18t\bigg]\right|_0^5.}

Step 3:
We now evaluate to get
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{array}{rcl} \displaystyle{s_{\text{avg}}} & = & \displaystyle{\frac{1}{5}\bigg[\frac{25(5)^2}{2}-\frac{5(5)^3}{3}+18(5)\bigg]-0}\\ &&\\ & = & \displaystyle{\frac{233}{6}.} \end{array}}

Final Answer:
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \frac{233}{6}}

Return to Sample Exam