LINEAR PROGRAMMING

WORD PROBLEMS WITH ANSWERS

1. Mary works selling cards over the telephone. She sells two types
of cards, birthday cards and holiday cards. Mary makes $2.00 for
each box of birthday cards she sells, and she makes $2.50 for each
box of holiday cards she sells. She can work no more than 10 hours
per week. It takes her an average of 15 minutes to sell one box of
birthday cards and an average of 20 minutes to sell one box of
holiday cards. If she can sell no more than 35 boxes of cards in total,
how many boxes of each type should she sell to make the most
money? (Hint: remember that an hour contains 60 minutes!)


x birthday cards
y holiday cards
35 x y
35 y x
30 x
4
3
y
600 y 20 x 15
0 y
0 x

Answer: 20 birthday cards and 15 holiday cards; max profit = $77.50

Vertices:

(0, 0) = $0.00
(0, 30) = $75.00
(20, 15) = $77.50
(35, 0) = $70.00
P = 2x + 2.50y
2. Your factory makes fruit filled breakfast bars and granola bars.
For each case of breakfast bars, you make a $40 profit. For each
case of granola bars, you make a $55 profit. It takes 2 machine
hours to make a case of breakfast bars and 5 hours of labor. It takes
6 machine hours and 4 labor hours to make s case of granola bars.
You have a maximum of 150 machine hours and 160 labor hours
available. How many cases of each product should you produce in
order to maximize profit?

x breakfast bar
y granola bar
40 x
4
5
y
160 y 4 x 5
25 x
3
1
y
150 y 6 x 2
0 y
0 x

Answer: approximately 15 cases of breakfast bars and 20 cases of

granola bars; max profit - $1700.00
Vertices:

(0, 0) = $0.00
(0, 25) =
$1375.00
(15,20) =
$1700.00
(32, 0) =$1280.00
P = 40x + 55y
3. An oil refinery has a maximum production of 2,000 barrels of oil
per day. It produces two types of petroleum products; gasoline and
heating oil. The government requires that the refinery produce at
least 300 barrels of heating oil per day. If the profit is $3.00 per barrel
of gasoline and $2 a barrel for heating oil, how much of each
petroleum product should the oil refinery produce per day to
maximize profit? What is the maximum profit per day?
x gasoline
y heating
2000 x y
2000 y x
300 y
0 x

Answer: 1700 barrels of gasoline and 300 barrels of heating;

max profit - $5700.00
Vertices:

(0, 300) =
$600.00
(0, 2000) =
$4000.00
(1700, 300)=
$5700.00
P = 3x + 2y
4. A Virginia Beach farmer has 480 acres of land on which to grow
either corn or soybeans. He figures he has 800 hours of labor
available during the crucial summer season. The farmer can expect
a profit of $40 per acre on corn and $30 per acre on soybeans. He
knows that corn requires 2 hours per acre to raise, and soybeans
require 1 hour per acre to raise. How many acres of each should he
plant to maximize profit? What is his maximum profit?
x acre of corn
y acre of
soybeans
800 x 2 y
800 y x 2
480 x y
480 y x
0 y
0 x

Answer: 320 acres of corn and 160 acres of soybeans; max profit -
$17,600.00
Vertices:

(0, 0) = $0.00
(0, 480) =
$14400.00
(400, 0) =
$16000.00
(320, 160)
=$17600.00
P = 40x + 30y
5. Brad owns a news stand that has room for 100 newspapers per
day. In his town, there are two papers, The Journal and The Globe.
Every day, Brad sells 20 Journals and 25 Globes to customers with
subscriptions. If Brad makes $0.05 for every Journal sold and $0.10
for each Globe sold, how many Journals and how many Globes
should he put on his stand to make the most money?
x # of The
Journal
y # of The Globe
100 x y
100 y x
25 y
20 x

Answer: 20 The J ournal and 80 The Globe; max profit - $9.00

Vertices:

(20, 25) = $3.50
(20, 80) = $9.00
(75, 25) = $6.25
P = .05x + .10y
6. Your club plans to raise money by selling two sizes of fruit
baskets. The Plan is to buy small baskets for $10 and sell them for
$16, then buy large baskets for $15 and sell them for $25. The club
president estimates that you will not sell more than 100 baskets.
Your club can afford to spend up to $1,200 to but baskets. Find the
number of small and large fruit baskets you should buy in order to
maximize profit.
x # of small fruit
baskets
y # of large fruit baskets
0
0
100
100
10 15 1200
2
80
3
x
y
x y
y x
x y
y x

Answer: 0 small fruit baskets and 80 large fruit baskets; max profit -
$800.00
Vertices:

(0, 0) = $0.00
(0, 80) = $800.00
(100, 0) = $600.00
(60, 40) = $760.00
P = 6x + 10y
LINEAR PROGRAMMING
ACTIVITY SHEET
WORD PROBLEMS WITH ANSWERS
1. The Buds-R-Us Florist has to order roses and carnations for
Valentines Day. Roses cost the florist $20 per dozen and carnation
cost $5 per dozen. The profit on roses is $20 per dozen and on
carnations it is $8 per dozen. The florist can spend at most $450 on
flowers and must order at least 20 dozen carnations, but the florist
can order no more than 60 dozen flowers. How many of each kind
should he order in order to maximize the profit?

x dozens of roses
y dozens of
carnations
90 x 4 y
450 y 5 x 20
60 x y
60 y x
20 y





Answer: 40 dozens of roses and 20 dozens of carnations; max profit -
$960.00
Vertices:

(10, 50) = $600.00
(~17, 20)=
$500.00
(40, 20) = $960.00
P = 20x + 8y
2. U. N. Scrupulous, a noted businessman in town, always uses
both newspaper and radio advertising each month. It is estimated
that each newspaper ad reaches 8,000 people and that each radio
ad reaches 15,000 people. Each newspaper ad costs $50 and each
radio ad costs $100. The business can spend no more than $1000
for advertising per month. The newspaper requires at least 4 ads be
purchased each month and the radio requires that at least 5 ads be
purchased each month. What combination of newspaper and radio
ads should old Scrupe purchase in order to reach the maximum
number of people?

x newspaper ad
y radio ad
10 x
2
1
y
1000 y 100 x 50
5 y
4 x

Answer: 10 newspaper ads and 5 radio ads; max people reached

155,000
Vertices:

(4, 8) =152,000
people
(4, 5) =107,000
people
(10, 5) =155,000
people
P = 8000x + 15000y
3. The campus store sells stadium cushions and caps. The cushions
cost $1.90; the caps cost $2.25. They sell the cushions for $5.00 and
the caps for $6.00. They can obtain no more than 100 cushions and
75 caps per week. To meet the demands, they have to sell a total of
at least 120 of the two items together. They cannot package more
than 150 per week. How many of each should they sell to maximize
profit?
x cushions
y caps
Answer: 75 cushions and 75 caps; max profit - $513.75
Vertices:

(45, 75) = $420.75
(75, 75) = $513.75
(100, 20)=
$385.00
(100, 50)
=$497.50
P = 3.1x + 3.75y
150 x y
150 y x
120 x y
120 y x
75 y
100 x