Test 1 Solution: Problem 1. Simplex Method (9 Points: 2, 2, 2, 3)
Test 1 Solution: Problem 1. Simplex Method (9 Points: 2, 2, 2, 3)
x1 x2 x3 x4 RHS
Z 0 -2 3 0 6
x1 1 1 1 0 3
x4 0 2 1 1 4
a) What are the current basic and nonbasic variables? What is the current basic
feasible solution? What is the objective function value?
b) If you choose x3 as the entering variable and x1 as the leaving variable, what can
you say about the next basic solution (feasible or infeasible, Z increasing or
decreasing)?
c) If you choose x2 as the entering variable and x1 as the leaving variable, what can
you say about the next basic solution (feasible or infeasible, Z increasing or
decreasing)?
d) Choosing the correct entering and leaving variables, perform one iteration of the
simplex method. Answer part (a) for the resulting basic solution? Is it optimal?
x1 x2 x3 x4 RHS
Z 0 0 4 1 10
x1 1 0 0.5 -0.5 1
x2 0 1 0.5 0.5 2
Capacity constraints:
x1L + x1M + x1S ≤ 750
x2L + x2M + x2S ≤ 900
x3L + x3M + x3S ≤ 450
Nonnegativity constraints:
All xij ≥ 0
Problem 3. Simplex Method (3 points)
You have the following simplex tableau:
x1 x2 x3 x4 RHS
Z 0 0 -2 0 10
x1 1 2 0 0 5
x4 0 3 -3 1 4
Can you conclude about this problem whether it is infeasible, has a unique
optimal solution, has multiple optimal solutions, or is unbounded? Briefly justify
your answer. You don’t need any simplex iterations to answer this question.
If you think the problem is unbounded, give a feasible solution of value at least
100. If you think the problem has a unique optimal solution, give that solution. If
you think the problem has multiple optimal solutions, give two optimal solutions.
The coefficient of x3 in row 0 is negative but there are no positive entries in the
column of x3 . This indicates that the problem is unbounded. From row 0 we have
Z = 10 + 2x3 . Thus, to get a feasible solution of value at least 100, we should
increase x3 from its current value 0 to at least 45 (while keeping the other non-
basic variable x2 at 0). When x2 stays at 0, the rows of x1 and x4 can be written as
x1 = 5
-3x3 + x4 = 4
If we take x3 =45 then we get the values of x1 and x4 from these equations:
x1 = 5, x4 = 139.
Thus, ( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = (5 , 0 , 45 , 139 ) is a solution of value 100.
Problem 4. Solving linear programs graphically (8 points)
You are given the following linear program:
Maximize x1 - x2
Subject to x1 ≤ 4
- x1 + 2x2 ≥ - 2
x1 , x2 ≥ 0
b) Change the objective function to make (x1, x2) = (0, 0) an optimal solution.
Minimize x1
Maximize x2
Minimize x1