MZUMBE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS STUDIES

QMS 103: MATHEMATICS FOR ECONOMISTS

TUTORIAL SHEET 1

EQUATIONS AND INEQUALITY

1. Solve the following

i. | |
ii. 𝑥 − 𝑥 <0
iii. | 𝑥 |
iv. | 𝑥− |
v. | 𝑥 |−
vi. | 𝑥 | −
vii. | 𝑥− |
2. If the demand and supply laws are respectively given by the equations
and . Find the equilibrium price and quantity.
3. Demand for goods of an industry is given by the equation 00 where p is the
price and q is the quantity; supply is given by equation 0 the equilibrium
price and quantity.
4. A man’s income from interest and wages is $500. He doubles his investment and also
gets an increase of 50 per cent in wages and his income increases to $800. What was
his original income separately in terms of interest (I) and wages (W)?
5. Solve the following system of simultaneous equations by elimination method,
substitution method and the graphical methods if possible and compare the results
i. 𝑥 and 𝑥 −
ii. 𝑥− and 𝑥 𝑥
6. Show that the general formula for solving equation 𝑥 𝑥 0 0 is
√
given by 𝑥
7. Solve the following quadratic equations by factorization, completing the square and
general formula
i. 𝑥 − 𝑥 0
ii.
iii. 𝑥 − 𝑥 − 0
iv. Find k if the roots of 𝑥 𝑥 0 are equal

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 FUNCTIONS AND GRAPHS
1. Given the two functions, f and g such that: ( ) , ( ) −
a) Find the domains and range of ( ) ( )
b) Find the domains and range of (− ) (− )
2. In Problems i–iii, use point-by-point plotting to sketch the graph of each equation and
indicate whether each graph drawn specifies a function.
i. −
ii.
iii.
3. Find ( )( ) given that ( ) √ ( ) −
4. Sketch the graphs of the following and functions and state their domain and range
i. ( ) √ −
ii. ( ) √ −
iii. ( ) | |
5. A company manufactures memory chips for microcomputers. It collected the data on price-
demand as shown in Table (a), where p is the wholesale price per chip at which x million chips
can be sold.
Table (a) Price-Demand
(𝑥 ) ( )
2 87
5 68
8 53
12 37
The Price-demand function that was used to model the data is; (𝑥) − 𝑥 𝑥 .
The company established the following cost function for producing and selling million memory
chips, (𝑥) 𝑥
i. Write the company’s revenue function and indicate its domain.
ii. Complete Table (b), computing the revenues to the nearest millions.
Table (b). Revenues
(𝑥 ) (𝑥)( )
1 90
3
6
9
12
15
iii. Plot the data for the Revenues on XY plane.
iv. Write a profit function for producing and selling x million memory chips.

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 MATRIX
1. Find the indicated matrix product, if exists, where:

2. Find a, b and c so that

3. Find the inverse, if exists, of the following matrices

4. Use the Cramer’s rule and the inverse of a matrix to solve the following system of linear
equations

(b)
(a)

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5. Consider the system

𝑥
𝑥
𝑥

Use determinant to find the values of k for which the system has:
a) A unique solution
b) More than one solution
c) No solution

LINEAR PROGRAMMING

1. With examples discuss the following terminologies

i. Linear Programming
ii. Decision variables
iii. Objective Function
iv. Feasible solution.
v. Feasible solution
vi. Unbounded solution
vii. Optimal solution
viii. Degeneracy
ix. Slack variables
x. Sensitivity analysis
2. Discuss the assumptions of Linear programming problem and comment on their applicability
in real life.
3. Explain in detail on how Linear Programming (LP) can help the managers in the process of
decision making.
4. A municipality has two incinerators for burning trash. Incinerator A costs $3 .80 per ton of
trash to operate, and has a capacity of 28 tons per day. Incinerator B costs $4 .25 per ton to
operate, and has a capacity of 30 tons per day. The municipality produces over 100 tons of
trash per day, and all trash not burned in the incinerators must be buried in a land fill at a cost
of $5 .00 per ton. The city manager wants to minimize costs by burning as much trash as
possible. However, the city must conform to environmental regulations limiting production
of pollutants from burning in the incinerators to 180 pounds of hydrocarbons and 640 pounds
of particulates a day. Incinerator A produces 3 pounds of hydrocarbons and 20 pounds of
particulates for every ton of trash burned, and incinerator B produces 5 pounds of
hydrocarbons and 10 pounds of particulates for every ton of trash. Determine the optimum
amount of trash to burn in each incinerator.

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5. You are the head of a building department. Your department is making final inspections of
two types of new commercial buildings--gas stations and restaurants. Final inspections
involve the work of three separate inspectors: a plumbing inspector, an electrical inspector,
and a building inspector. The plumbing inspector requires 4 hours to inspect a gas station and
2 hours to inspect a restaurant. The electrical inspector requires 2 hours to inspect a gas
station and 6 hours to inspect a restaurant. The building inspector requires 4 hours to inspect
a gas station and 6 hours to inspect a restaurant. Considering the time required for other
duties, the plumbing inspector has 28 hours a week available for inspections; the electrical
inspector has 30 hours available; and the building inspector has 36 hours available. You want
to inspect as many commercial buildings as possible each week. Set up this problem as a
linear programming problem. Define the decision variables, objective function and the
constraints.
6. Rott Irony manufactures four types of light fixtures. A fancy lamp yields a profit of $100,
takes 10 hours of labor and 2 hours of machine time, and requires 10 square feet of sheet
metal. An ornate lamp yields a profit of $150, takes 8 hours of labor and 3 hours of machine
time, and requires 20 square feet of metal. The plain and rococo lamps each yield a $200
profit and involve 1 hour of machine time. However, the rococo lamp requires 20 hours of
labor and 30 square feet of metal, and the plain lamp requires 10 hours of labor and 15 square
feet of metal. Rott must produce at least twice as many plain as rococo lamps. Only 1,000
hours of labor and 200 hours of machine time are available, and 5,000 square feet of sheet
metal are in inventory. Rott wants to determine how many of each type of lamp to make to
maximize total profits. Formulate this problem as a linear program.
7. Quicker Oats must determine how much of its $200,000 advertising and promotional budget
should be spent in the following media: television, radio, magazines, and prize promotion.
Each dollar spent on television advertising increases sales $10; both radio and magazine ads
result in half that return, and prize promotion returns $20 in sales for each dollar invested.
Television advertising cannot exceed half of the total budget, and total radio advertising must
be at least 20% of total TV advertising. At least $20,000 must be spent on magazine ads, and
no more than $25,000 may be spent on the prize promotion. Management’s objective is to
maximize the total increase in Quicker’s sales volume. Formulate the decision as a linear
program.
8. The Regal China Company produces two products daily plates and mugs. The company has
limited amounts of two resources used in the production of these products clay and labor.
Given these limited resources, the company desires to know how many plates to produce
each day, in order to maximize profit. The two products have the following resource
requirements for production and profit per item produced (i.e., the model parameters).
Product Labour (hours/unit) Clay (kg/unit) Profit ($/unit)
Plate 1 4 4
Mug 2 3 5
There are 40 hours of labor and 120 kgs of clay available each day for production.

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 i. Formulate this problem as a linear programming problem by clearly defining the
decision variables, the objective function and the constraints.
ii. Use the graphical approach to advice the company on the optimum product mix and
contribution.
9. In a machine shop a company manufactures two t ypes of electronic
components, X and Y on which it aims to maximize the contribution to profit. The
company wishes to know the ideal combination of X and Y to make. All the electronic
components are produced in three main stages: Assembly, Inspection and testing, and
packing. In Assembly each X takes 1 hour and each Y takes 2 hours. Inspection & Testing
takes 7.5 minutes for each X and 30 minutes for each Y on average, which includes the time
required for any faults to be rectified. In In total there are 600 hours available for assembly
and 100 hours for inspection and testing each week. At all stages both components can be
processed at the same time. At the final stage the components require carefully packing prior
to delivery. Each X takes 3 minutes and each Y take 20 minutes on average to mount, box
and pack properly. There is a total of 60 packing hours available each week. The contribution
on X is $10 per unit and on Y is $15 per unit. For engineering reasons not more than 500 of
X can be made each week.
i. Formulate this problem as a linear programming problem by clearly defining the
decision variables, the objective function and the constraints.
ii. Use the graphical approach to advice the company on the optimum product mix
and contribution.
iii. Solve by simplex and compare the results from the graphical solution

10. A furniture company manufactures desks and chairs. The sawing department cuts the lumber
for both products, which is then sent to separate assembly departments. Assembled items are
sent for finishing to the painting department. The daily capacity of the sawing department is
200 chairs or 80 desks. The chair assembly department can produce 120 chairs daily and the
desk assembly department 60 desks daily. The paint department has a daily capacity of either
150 chairs or 110 desks. Given that the profit per chair is $50 and that of a desk is $100.
a) Formulate the above problem as a linear programming problem by defining clearly the
decision variables, the constraints and the objective function.
b) Advice the company on the best combination of desks and chairs that will maximize
company’s’ profit.
11. A dietician has to develop a special diet using two foods P and Q. Each packet (containing 30
g) of food P contains 12 units of calcium, 4 units of iron, 6 units of cholesterol and 6 units of
vitamin A. Each packet of the same quantity of food Q contains 3 units of calcium, 20 units
of iron, 4 units of cholesterol and 3 units of vitamin A. The diet requires at least 240 units of
calcium, at least 460 units of iron and at most 300 units of cholesterol. How many packets of
each food should be used to minimize the amount of vitamin A in the diet? What is the
minimum amount of vitamin A? Use the graphical approach.

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12. Good furnishings, a furniture manufacturer produces and sells desks, chairs and bookshelves.
They have no difficult in selling their items. However, limited availability of machine time,
labour and space of restrict production. Data on usage of resources, supplies and profits are
given below:
Desk Chair Book shelf supply
Machine (hrs/unit) 8 4 5 1000 hrs
Labour (hrs/unit) 5 3 3 650 hrs
Floor space (ft/unit) 9 6 9 1260sq ft
Contribution (Rs/unit) 270 144 225

Advice the furniture manufacturer on the optimal number of desks, chairs and bookshelves to be
produced in order to maximize profit.
13. Use the SIMPLEX ALGORITHM to determine the most profitable mix in the following LP
Problem.

𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
Subject to constraints
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 0

14. Use the SIMPLEX ALGORITHM to determine the most profitable mix in the following
maximization LP Problem.

𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 0𝑥
Subject to constraints
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 000
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 00
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 00
𝑥 0
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 0

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15. Use the SIMPLEX ALGORITHM to determine the most profitable mix in the following
maximization LP Problem.
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
Subject to constraints
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
𝑥
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 0