Flipped Lecture 9

Discussion 19 February 2020

1. Taken from the video for the flipped lecture at http://youtu.be/

MCvz-c6UUkw: consider the problem

min x2 + y 2 − 3x + y + 2,
x,y

under the constraints x ≥ 0, y ≤ 1, x + y ≤ 2.

(a) Draw the contours of the function.

(b) Solve the problem.

2. How do you plot the domain D of the previous problem?

3. The production of a firm is

0.3l0.4 k 0.6 ,

where l is labour and k is capital. The unit cost of labour and capital is
0.5. Which is the maximum production if the cost of the factors cannot
exceed 2?

4. Review Weiestrass’ theorem at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_

value_theorem for functions of one variable. Its generalization claims
that functions of two variables defined over a closed and bounded do-
main always attain a maximum and a minimum (in the given domain).

(a) Does the theorem apply to the problem described in 1) above?

Does the theorem apply if you maximize instead of minimizing?
(b) Try to maximize/minimize

x2 − x2 y + 3y,

on the domain D = {(x, y) : x ≥ 0, x + y ≥ 2}. What is going on

here? Is the theorem violated?