Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/5/c/solution

For positive edge lengths the volume is and the surface area constraint is . Introduce a Lagrange multiplier :
The stationary point equations are
Multiplying these by , respectively, and equating their left sides gives and . Because all edge lengths are positive, the equations imply ; hence . The constraint gives .
To establish a global maximum, rather than only a stationary point, apply the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality to :
Equality holds exactly when , or . Therefore

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