An offshore oil well is 2 kilometers off the coast. The refinery is 6 kilometers down the c

Question

i cant seem to figure it out.An offshore oil well is 2 kilometers off the coast. The refinery is 6 kilometers down the coast (see figure). Laying pipe in the ocean is twice as expensive as on land. What path should the pipe follow in order to minimize the cost?

Answer 1

2 km to the coast is 2 times twice the cost, or 4 times the cost. Down the coast is 6 times the cost, so that's 10 times the cost.

 

36 + 4 = 40, and the square root of 40 is 6. something through the water, so that's 13-ish times the cost.