What is the largest value of z = 20x1 + 30x2 in the feasible region?

In other words, what is the

highest level curve 20x1 + 30x2 = c that touches the feasible region? What is point (or points)
of intersection? (these are the x1 and x2 that maximize profit)
We need the lowest contour that touches the purple region. The red dashed lines are contours
3500x1 + 3000x2 = c. (For any c, the line has slope 7/6 )

If the constraints are not consistent with each other, the feasible set may be the empty set. We
call such a problem infeasible
EG. Maximize x2 subject to: x 1 and x 1/2 . Infeasible, since no x satisfies the constraints. F =
(the empty set).
If the function we are trying to optimize takes arbitrarily large positive (or negative) values, then
there is no max (or no min). The problem is unbounded.
EG. Maximize 50x1 + 30x2 subject to: x1 0, x2 0, x1 + x2 3. Unbounded, since 20x1 + 30x2
can be made arbitrarily large given the constraints
SLACK VARIABLE: A non-negative variable that is added to the smaller side of an inequality to
convert it to an equality.
5x1 + 7x2 80 5x1 + 7x2 + x3 = 80, where the slack variable, x3 = 80 (5x1 + 7x2) 0

With the addition of m slack variables, and m + n variables in total- we find a basic
solution if no more than m of the variables are non-zero. And in a basic feasible
solution (extreme points of the feasible set) all variables are non-negative (0 or positive),
and at most m of them can be positive.
EG.

Can represent the above equations as a matrix with 6 variables-

Q1.

Ans.