Practice Paper 1

Candidates may use any calculator allowed by the regulations of the

Joint Council for Qualifications. Calculators must not have the facility
for symbolic algebra manipulation, differentiation and integration, or
have retrievable mathematical formulae stored in them.

Instructions
• Use black ink or ball-point pen.
• If pencil is used for diagrams/sketches/graphs it must be dark (HB or B).
• Fill in the boxes at the top of this page with your name, centre number and candidate
number.
• Answer all questions and ensure that your answers to parts of questions are clearly
labelled.
• You should show sufficient working to make your methods clear. Answers without working
may not gain full credit.
• Answers should be given to three significant figures unless otherwise stated.

Information
• A booklet ‘Mathematical Formulae and Statistical Tables’ is provided.
• The total mark for this part of the examination is 40. There are 4 questions.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets
– use this as a guide as to how much time to spend on each question.

Advice
• Read each question carefully before you start to answer it.
• Try to answer every question.
• Check your answers if you have time at the end.
 Answer ALL questions.

1. Five workers A, B, C, D and E are to be assigned to five tasks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Each worker
must be assigned to just one task and each task is to be completed by just one worker.

The table shows the profit made by assigning each worker to each task.

1 2 3 4 5
A 51 47 62 50 55
B 54 51 60 53 51
C 49 52 58 55 53
D 52 56 61 58 57
E 56 48 59 55 56

Reducing rows first, use the Hungarian algorithm to obtain an allocation that maximises the
total profit. Show the table at each stage and state the maximum profit.

(Total for Question 1 is 9 marks)

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2. The table shows the pay-offs for a two-person zero-sum game.

Y plays 1 Y plays 2 Y plays 3 Y plays 4

X plays 1 3 −1 2 1

X plays 2 1 2 4 3

(a) Explain what is meant by a ‘zero-sum’ game.

(1)

(b) Show that there is no stable solution.

(2)

(c) Find the best strategy for player X and the value of the game to him.
(9)

(Total for Question 2 is 12 marks)

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2
3. Figure 1 represents a capacitated directed network of water pipes. The numbers on the arcs
represent the capacities of the pipes and the numbers in circles represent a feasible flow.

Figure 1

(a) Explain why K is not a cut.

(1)

(b) Write down:

(i) the capacity of the cut C,

(ii) the value of x,

(iii) the value of the flow.

(3)

(c) Find a flow-augmenting path that will increase the value of the flow by 3.
(2)

(d) Prove that the flow is then maximal.

(3)

(Total for Question 3 is 9 marks)

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3
4. An amount, £X, is taken out as a loan to buy a property. At the end of each month, interest of
r % is added to the balance of the loan, and a fixed amount, £p, is then repaid.

Let Ln be the balance of the loan after n payments have been made.

(a) Write a first-order recurrence relation for Ln.

(1)

(b) Show that Ln = is a particular solution to this recurrence relation.

(2)

(c) Solve the recurrence relation for Ln.

(4)

A customer wishes the loan to be fully repaid after n months.

(d) Show that the customer’s minimum monthly payment should be

.
(3)

(Total for Question 4 is 10 marks)

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TOTAL FOR DECISION MATHEMATICS 2 IS 40 MARKS