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(Optimization) The length of the longest ladder that can negotiate the corner de

ID: 3141685 • Letter: #

Question

(Optimization) The length of the longest ladder that can negotiate the corner depicted in Figure 2 can be determined by computing the value of that minimizes the following function :

                L (theta) =  w1/sin (theta) + w2/sin (pi [Minus] alpha [Minus] theta)


I have this solution in Mathematica. What I need is to use something else instead of FindMinimum (Or other automatic methods). Probably, i should use optimization: Golden-section search or Parabolic interpolation. Any help? Thanks!

L w

Explanation / Answer

SOLUTION:

The following script genarates the plot of L versus Range of ' alpha' s:

alphad=[45.5.135];alphad*pi/180,for i=1

   Length(alpha) [t,Lmin(i)]=fminsearch(@(x)2/sin(x)+2sin(pi-alpha(i)-x),0.3;endplot(alphad,Lmin)