Question

A decision at the marginVan is a hard-working college senior. One Thursday, he decides to work nonstop until he has answered 200 practice problems for his economics course. He starts work at 8:00 AM and uses a table to keep track of his progress throughout the day. He notices that as he gets tired, it takes him longer to solve each problem.Time Total Problems Answered8:00 AM 09:00 AM 8010:00 AM 14011:00 AM 180Noon 200The marginal, or additional, gain from Van’s first hour of work, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, isproblems.The marginal, or additional, gain from Van’s second hour of work, from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.The marginal gain from Van’s third hour of work, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, isproblems.Later, the teaching assistant in Van’s economics course gives him some advice. "Based on past experience," the teaching assistant says, "working on 30 problems raises a student’s exam score by about the same amount as reading the textbook for 1 hour." For simplicity, assume students always cover the same number of pages during each hour they spend reading.Given this information, in order to use his 4 hours of study time to get the best exam score possible, how many hours should he have spent working on problems, and how many should he have spent reading?a. 1 hour working on problems, 3 hours reading.b. 2 hours working on problems, 2 hours reading.c. 3 hours working on problems, 1 hour reading.d. 4 hours working on problems, 0 hours reading.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

1. The extra gain arises from Van first work hour i.e. from  8:00 AM to 9:00 AM is

= 80 - 0

= 80

2. The extra gain arises from Van third work hour i.e. from  10:00 AM to 11:00 AM is

= 180 - 140

= 40

3. He should select 3 hours of working and 1 hour reading as at the fourth hour for problem solving, he solves only

= 200 - 180

= 20

That brings better off study at it depicts the worth of 30 solving problems