Calculus - Optimization

[past pawn]

I was absent from my calculus class TWICE because of car troubles. Its been the worst experience of my life I hate calc so much. Anyway, does anyone have any good resources for learning about optimization?? This is such a confusing topic to me because I am not sure why I am doing the steps that I was taught to do (if that makes any sense). It's like if I was being taught how to do 2+2, but I had no concept of the value of numbers. I am soo lost on the idea of optimization because I just don't understand why the steps to optimize something exist. And nobody seems to teach it in a way that I can understand.

[bright schooner]

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[viscid roost]

Optimization? What's the topic?

[past pawn]

There isnt much on my textbook to describe this topic other than the real world examples it lists. The topic mostly focuses on things like "if a farmer wants to build a rectangular fence around his x square feet property, what would be the dimensions of the fence with minimal cost?" or something like "someone is trying to find 2 values whose product is 100, but their sum is a minimum. what are they?".