سوال ۲۳ کنکور ارشد ریاضی ۱۴۰۰

PASSAGE 2 — Motivation (excerpt)

"It is perhaps natural that the concept of best or optimal decisions should emerge as the fundamental approach for formulating decision problems. In this approach a single real quantity, summarizing the performance or value of a decision, is isolated and optimized (i.e., either maximized or minimized depending on the situation) by proper selection among available alternatives. The resulting optimal decision is taken as the solution to the decision problem. This approach to decision problems has the virtues of simplicity, preciseness, elegance, and, in many cases, mathematical tractability. It also has obvious limitations due to the necessity of selecting a single objective by which to measure results. But optimization has proved its utility as a mode of analysis and is firmly entrenched in the field of decision making."

23. An optimal quantity ------------.