Marginal cost & cost function
The cost to produce an additional item is called the marginal cost and as we've illustrated in the above example the marginal cost is approximated through the rate of change of the cost function, C ( x ) . Therefore, we described the marginal cost function to be the derivative of the cost function or, C′ ( x ) . Let's work a rapid example of this.
Example The production costs per day for some widget is specified by,
C ( x ) = 2500 -10x - 0.01x2 + 0.0002x3
What is the marginal cost while x = 200 , x = 300 & x = 400 ?
Solution
Therefore, we require the derivative and then we'll require computing some values of the derivative.
C′ ( x ) = -10 - 0.02 x + 0.0006 x2
C′ ( 200) = 10 C′ (300) =38 C′ ( 400) = 78
Thus, in order to generates the 201st widget it will cost approximately $10. To generate the 301st widget will cost around $38. At last, to product the 401st widget it will cost approximately $78.