Consider the following scenario to understand the relationship between marginal and average values. Suppose Dmitri is a professional basketball player, and his game log for free throws can be summarized in the following table.

Game	Game result	total	game free-throw percentage	average free-throw percentage
1	6/8	6/8	75	75
2	2/8	8/16
3	2/4	10/20
4	8/10	18/30
5	8/10	26/40

You can think of the result in any one game as being Dmitri's marginal free-throw percentage. Based on your previous answer, you can deduce that when Dmitri's marginal free-throw percentage is below the average, the average must be . You can now apply this analysis to production costs. For a U-shaped average total cost cu total cost curve, when the marginal cost curve is below the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be .

Also, when the marginal cost, above the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be . Therefore, the marginal cost curve intersects the average total cost curve .

FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 GAME 3 5 Game Free-Throw Percentage Average Free-Throw Percentage