Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3300 Assign 8 Fall 2008
3300 Assign 8 Fall 2008
1. (ANIMAL FEED MIX) The Cheval Blanc Stable feeds and houses the horses used to pull
tourist-filled calches through the cobblestoned streets of Quebecs historic Old City. The stable
owner recognizes the need to set a nutritional diet for the horses in his care. At the same time, he
would like to keep the overall daily cost of feed to a minimum.
The feed mixes available for the horses diet are an oat product, a highly enriched grain, and a
mineral product. Each of these mixes contains a certain amount of five ingredients needed daily
to keep the average horse healthy. The table for this problem (below) shows these minimum
requirements, units of each ingredient per kilo of feed mix, and costs for the three mixes.
In addition, the stable owner is aware than an overfed horse is a sluggish worker.
Consequently, he determines that 3 kilograms of feed per day is the most that any horse needs
to function properly. Formulate this problem and solve for the optimal daily mix of the three
feeds.
FEED MIX
DIET OAT ENRICHED MINERAL MINIMUM DAILY
REQUIREMENT PRODUCT GRAIN PRODUCT REQUIRMENT
(INGREDIENTS) (UNITS/KG) (UNITS/KG) (UNITS/KG) (UNITS)
A 1 1.5 0.5 3
B 0.25 0.5 0.25 1
C 1.5 2.5 3 4.5
D 0.5 0.75 1 4
E 0.25 0.25 0.75 2.5
Cost/kg $0.18 $0.28 $0.34
Use Solver to create the Answer and Sensitivity Reports for this LP problem. Now answer the following
questions using these reports. Each question is independent of the others.
(a) If the price of grain decreases by $0.0l per kilo, will the optimal solution change?
(b) Which constraints are binding? Interpret the shadow price for the binding constraints.
(c) What would happen to the total cost if the price of the mineral product decreased
by 20% from its current value?
(d) For what price range of oats is the current solution optimal?
WATER IRRIGATION
PARCEL AREA (ACRES) LIMIT (ACRE-FEET)
Kowalchuks best estimate is that she can sell wheat at a net profit of $2 per bushel, alfalfa at $40
per ton, and barley at $50 per ton. One acre of land yields an average of 1.5 tons of alfalfa and
2.2 tons of barley. The wheat yield is approximately 50 bushels per acre.
3. A farmer in China has a 100 acre farm on which to plant ginseng and garlic. Every acre planted with
ginseng requires 50 gallons of water per day and must be prepared for planting with 20 pounds of fertilizer.
Every acre of garlic requires 75 gallons of water a day and must be prepared with 15 pounds of fertilizer.
The farmer estimates it will take 2 hours of labour to harvest each acre of ginseng and 2.5 hours of labour
to harvest each acre of garlic. He believes that ginseng will sell for $3 a pound and garlic for about $1.
Each acre of ginseng is expected to yield 90 pounds and each acre of garlic is expected to yield 300 pounds.
The farmer can pump 6000 gallons a day for irrigation purposes from a shallow well. She can buy as much
fertilizer as he needs at a cost of $10 per 50 pound bag. Finally, the farmer can hire all the labour he needs
to help harvest at a rate of $5 per hour. If the farmer sells all she produces, how many acres of each crop
should she put in to maximize her profits?
Write this problem in standard form and solve this problem using the simplex method. Interpret solution,
the dual values and reduced costs. Verify your answers using Excel.
4. At ag-fairs throughout rural Alberta, A man sells miniature tractors carved from wood. His sole objective
is to maximise profits from the production and sale of three types of toy tractors. The data below describe
the production hours per unit.
Write this problem in standard form and solve this problem using the simplex method. Interpret solution,
the dual values and reduced costs. Verify your answers using Excel.