3. The relationship between marginal and average costs The following scenario examines the relationship between marginal and average values. Suppose Angel is a high school basketball player. The following table presents their game-by-game results for foul shots. Fill in the columns with Angel's foul-shooting percentage for each game and their overall foul-shooting average after each game. Game Game Result Total Game Foul-Shooting Percentage Average Foul-Shooting Percentage 1 8/10 8/10 80 80 2 6/10 14/20 [ ] [ ] 3 1/5 15/25 [ ] [ ] 4 3/5 18/30 [ ] ] 5 8/10 26/40 [ ] [ ] On the following graph, use the orange points (square symbol) to plot Angel's foul-shooting percentage for each game individually, and use the green points (triangle symbol) to plot Angel's overall average foul-shooting percentage after each game. Note: Plot your points in the order in which you would like them connected. Line segments will connect the points automatically. @ 100 O 80 a0 Game Foul-Shooting Percentage 70 A 80 -+ Average Foul-Shooting Percentage FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE 8 40 30 20 10 o e o 1 2 3 4 5 GAME You can think of the result in any one game as being Angel's marginal shooting percentage. Based on your previous answer, you can deduce that when Angel's marginal shooting percentage is below the average, the average must be v . You can now apply this analysis to production costs. For a U-shaped average total cost (ATC) curve, when the marginal cost curve is below the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be W . Also, when the marginal cost curve is above the average total cost curve, the average total cost must be w . Therefore, the marginal cost curve intersects the average total cost curve v