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IE 220

Mid-Term Exam 1

1. (17 points) A cargo plane has three compartments for storing cargo: front, center and back.
These compartments have capacity limits on both the weight and space, as summarized below:

Compartment Weight Capacity (Tons) Space Capacity (Cubic Feet)

Front 12 7000

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Center 18 9000

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Back 10 5000

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Furthermore, the weight of the cargo in the respective compartments must be the same propor-
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tion of that compartment’s weight capacity to maintain balance of the airplane. This means
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that if the front is filled up to 50% of its weight capacity, then all the other compartments
must be filled up to 50% of their weight capacity.
The following four cargoes have been offered for shipment on an upcoming flight as space is
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available:
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Cargo Weight (Tons) Volume (Cubic Feet/Ton) Profit ($/Ton)

1 20 500 320
2 16 700 400
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3 25 600 360
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4 13 400 290

Any portion of these cargoes can be accepted, but for environmental reasons, the captain
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refuses to fly the plane if the cargo is less then 20 tons. The objective is to determine
how much (if any) of each cargo should be accepted and how to distribute each among the
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compartments to maximize the total profit for the flight.

(a) (6 points) Formulate this problem as a linear programming model. Be sure to include all
necessary constraints. You do not need to convert to standard form (maximization prob-
lem, only ≤ constraints, etc.). (Hint: Your decision variables could be x1F , x2F , . . . , x4B .)
The decision variables x1F , x2F , . . . , x4B will denote the weight of each cargo in each
compartment. We maximize the total profit:

max 320(x1F +x1C +x1B )+400(x2F +x2C +x2B )+360(x3F +x3C +x3B ))+290(x4F +x4C +x4B )

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The weight in each compartment must be less than the capacity:

x1F + x2F + x3F + x4F ≤ 12
x1C + x2C + x3C + x4C ≤ 18
x1B + x2B + x3B + x4B ≤ 10
The volume in each compartment must be less than the capacity:
500x1F + 700x2F + 600x3F + 400x4F ≤ 7000
500x1C + 700x2C + 600x3C + 400x4C ≤ 9000
500x1B + 700x2B + 600x3B + 400x4B ≤ 5000
The weight of each cargo type can not be more than what is to be shipped:
x1F + x1C + x1B ≤ 20

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x2F + x2C + x2B ≤ 16

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x3F + x3C + x3B ≤ 25

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x4F + x4C + x4B ≤ 13

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The weight/capacity ratio must be the same for all compartments:
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(x1F + x2F + x3F + x4F )/12 = (x1C + x2C + x3C + x4C )/18
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(x1F + x2F + x3F + x4F )/12 = (x1B + x2B + x3B + x4B )/10
These two actually guarantee that the ratios are the same.
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The total weight must be at least 20 tons:

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x1F + x2F + · · · + x4B ≥ 20

Finally, the decision variables must be nonnegative:
x1F , x2F , . . . , x4B ≥ 0
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(b) (2 points) Explain in one or two sentences why it may be difficult to find a starting
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feasible solution for this LP.

Due to the minimum weight constraint, the origin is not a feasible solution.
(c) (2 points) Recall that the divisibility assumption states that the variables may take frac-
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tional values. Do you think this is a reasonable assumption for this model? Explain in
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a few sentences why or why not.

It depends on the type of cargo that’s to be shipped, but as they always come in some sort
of packaging, there must be an indivisible unit. If they are too large (i.e., cars, containers,
etc.), then divisibility is violated. As long as the units are small, the LP model is fine.
(d) (2 points) Recall that the certainty assumption states that the value assigned to each
parameter is a known constant. Do you think that this is a reasonable assumption for
this model? Explain in a few sentences why or why not.
For the weights, volumes and capacities the certainty assumption holds. The profit is
slightly different, since it will depend on fuel consumption, which is not known exactly
in advance. However, as the variances are usually not large, the certainty assumption is
reasonable.

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(e) (5 points) Convert your LP from part (a) to augmented form:

• Maximization problem
• Only equality constraints
• Only non-negative variables
Penalize the artificial variables (if there are any) in the objective function using “big-M s.”
Every ≤ constraints gets a slack-variable:

x1F + x2F + x3F + x4F + x1 = 12

x1C + x2C + x3C + x4C + x2 = 18
x1B + x2B + x3B + x4B + x3 = 10
500x1F + 700x2F + 600x3F + 400x4F + x4 = 7000
500x1C + 700x2C + 600x3C + 400x4C + x5 = 9000

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500x1B + 700x2B + 600x3B + 400x4B + x6 = 5000

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x1F + x1C + x1B + x7 = 20

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x2F + x2C + x2B + x8 = 16

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x3F + x3C + x3B + x9 = 25
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x4F + x4C + x4B + x10 = 13

The two equalities get an artificial variable (penalty terms appear in the objective):
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(x1F + x2F + x3F + x4F )/12 − (x1C + x2C + x3C + x4C )/18 + x̄11 = 0
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(x1F + x2F + x3F + x4F )/12 − (x1B + x2B + x3B + x4B )/10 + x̄12 = 0

The inequality gets a surplus and an artificial variable (one more penalty term in the
objective):
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x1F + x2F + · · · + x4B − x13 + x̄14 = 20

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Nonnegativity is extended to the new variables:

x1F , x2F , . . . , x4B , x1 , . . . , x14 ≥ 0

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The new objective function is:

max 320(x1F + x1C + x1B ) + 400(x2F + x2C + x2B ) + 360(x3F + x3C + x3B )) + 290(x4F + x4C + x4B ) − M x̄11 − M x̄12 − M x̄14

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2. (6 points) Consider the following LP:

maximize Z = x1 + x2
subject to −x1 + 2x2 ≤ 4
−2x1 + 2x2 ≥ −2
2x1 ≤ 4
x1 , x2 ≥ 0

(a) (3 points) Graph the constraints and shade the feasible region. Draw an objective func-
tion line through the optimal solution.

x2

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2x1 ≤ 4

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−x1 + 2x2 ≤ 4

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4

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3 −2x1 + 2x2 ≥ −2
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2
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max x1 + x2

1
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x1
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1 2 3 4 5
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(b) (3 points) Suppose that the basic variables in a given basic solution are x1 , x3 , and x5 ,
where x3 is the slack variable for the first constraint and x5 is the slack variable for
the third constraint. Draw a box () in your graph around the corner-point feasible
solution corresponding to this basic solution and explain briefly how you determined the
corner-point solution.
If x1 , x3 , x5 are basic solutions, then x2 is nonbasic, implying x2 = 0. Further, x3 and x5
are positive, which means that the point is not on the constraint boundaries of the first
and third constraints. This leaves (1, 0).

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3. (4 points) Suppose that after solving Phase 1 of an LP problem, the simplex tableau looks
like this (x̄5 is an artificial variable):

Basic Coefficient of: Right

Variable Eq. Z x1 x2 x3 x4 x̄5 Side
Z (0) 1 1 0 0 1 0 1
x3 (1) 0 4 0 1 0 0 7
x2 (2) 0 2 1 0 1 0 3
x̄5 (3) 0 1 0 0 0 1 1

What does this tell us about the original problem? How do we start Phase 2?

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This tableau is optimal, but the artificial variable is still basic, and the objective value is

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positive, not 0. This means that the original problem must be infeasible. We can not start

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Phase 2.

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4. (6 points) Perform one iteration of the simplex method starting with the following tableau:

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Basic Coefficient of: Right
Variable Eq. Z x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 Side
−2 0 −1
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Z (0) 1 0 0 1
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x3 (1) 0 4 0 1 0 0 8
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x2 (2) 0 2 1 0 1 0 3
x5 (3) 0 2 0 0 −2 4 2
Z (0) 1 0 0 0 −3 4 3
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x3 (1) 0 0 0 1 4 −8 4
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x2 (2) 0 0 1 0 3 −4 1
x1 (3) 0 1 0 0 −1 2 1
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Write down the solution after the simplex step, decide if it is optimal.
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(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 ) = (1, 1, 4, 0, 0), not optimal

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5. (16 points) Consider the following simplex tableau:

Basic Coefficient of: Right

Variable Eq. Z x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 Side
Z (0) 1 0 0 0 −2] 1\ 0 5
x2 (1) 0 0 1 0 3 −2 0 6
x3 (2) 0 0 0 1 −1 0 0 1
x1 (3) 0 1 0 0 0 −2 0 12
x6 (4) 0 0 0 0 3 −1 1 3[

For questions (c-h) below, indicate which of the following you can say are true for sure. List
all items that are applicable.

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1. The current solution is feasible.

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2. The current solution is infeasible.

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3. The current solution is optimal.
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4. The current solution is not optimal.
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5. The problem is infeasible.
6. The problem is unbounded.
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7. The problem has multiple optimal solutions.

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8. The problem is degenerate.

9. A mistake has been made in the simplex calculations.

(a) (2 points) What is the current solution and its objective value?
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(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6 ) = (12 , 6 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 3 )
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Z=5
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(b) (2 points) What are the entering and leaving variables?

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Entering: x4
Leaving: x6

(c) (2 points) Which statements are definitely true for the simplex tableau given above?
1,4

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(d) (2 points) Which statements are definitely true if you change the entry marked with a [
to −6?
2,4,9

(e) (2 points) Which statements are definitely true if you change the entry marked with a ]
to 1?
1,3

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(f) (2 points) Which statements are definitely true if you change the entry marked with a \
to −4?
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1,4,6
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(g) (2 points) Which statements are definitely true if you change the entry marked with a ]
to 0?
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1,3,7
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(h) (2 points) Which statements are definitely true if you change the entry marked with a [
to 6?
1,4,8

6. (1 point) 2 + 2 = 4

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