Question

Jade has midterms in economics and astronomy tomorrow and only has four hours left to study. The accompanying table provides the combinations of time spent studying economics and astronomy and her expected exam scores.
Hours Spent Studying Economics Economics Exam Score Hours Spent Studying Astronomy Astronomy Exam Score
0 60 0 70
1 80 1 83
2 90 2 87
3 95 3 90
4 98 4 92

Required:
a. Use a graph to plot the production possibilities frontier for Jade's study options.
b. Suppose Jade spends the first two hours studying economics. The opportunity cost of spending the third hour studying economics is __________ points on her __________exam.
c. Suppose Jade’s goal is to maximize her combined exam scores. Calculate how many hours she should spend studying economics and how many hours she should spend studying astronomy.

Jade should spend _________hours studying economics and _______hours studying astronomy.

d. Suppose Jade's laptop dies and refuses to start up. All her notes and class materials (for both classes) are saved on its hard drive.

Jade's production possibilities curve will ______________, because studying

Answer 1

Answer:

a. This part can be drawn here, so I have attached it in the attachment. Please refer to attachment for this part of the question.

b. First blank = 13 marks

2nd Blank = Astronomy

c. Economics for 3 hours

Astronomy for 1 hour

d. In this case, Jade's Performance Possibility Frontier graph will shift to left. As obviously, she will get low marks in both exams if her laptop dies.  

Explanation:

Jade have total 4 hours to study and have two exams of Economics and Astronomy. If she only studies Economics then she will lose marks in Astronomy and vice versa. So, she needs to plan wisely to gain optimum marks and this questions is all about the planning.

Solution:

a. This part can be drawn here, so I have attached it in the attachment. Please refer to attachment for this part of the question.

b. Supposing Jade spend first 2 hours studying economics.

It means from the data, she would obtain 90 marks in Economics.

Now, the other part is asking that, if she spends 3rd hour studying Economics then what is the opportunity cost of spending that hour. And how much marks she will compromise for the other subject

So,

Suppose, she spends that 3rd hour studying Astronomy. So, according to data given, she will acquire 13 marks in Astronomy. And it is exactly the opportunity cost of spending the third hour studying Economics.

First blank = 13 marks

2nd Blank = Astronomy

c. In order to maximize the score from the combination of exams, Jade need to study Economics for 3 hours which will give her total marks = 95 marks

and she need to study Astronomy for 1 hour which will give her total marks = 83 marks.

In this combination, she will get maximum marks = 95 + 83 = 178 marks

d. In this case, Jade's Performance Possibility Frontier graph will shift to left. As obviously, she will get low marks in both exams if her laptop dies.