The Problem:

In this project your group will solve the following situation:

A local business plans on advertising their new product by purchasing advertisements on the
radio and on TV. The business plans to purchase at least 60 total ads and they want to have at
least three times as many TV ads as radio ads. Radio ads cost $20 each and TV ads cost $120
each. The advertising budget is $6460. It is estimated that each radio ad will be heard by 900
listeners and each TV ad will be seen by 4500 people. How many of each type of ad should be
purchased to maximize the number of people who will be reached by the advertisements?

Modeling the Problem:

Let X be the number of radio ads that are purchased, and Y be the number of TV ads.

1. Write down a linear inequality for the total number of desired ads.

x + y => 60 advertisements

2. Write down a linear inequality for the cost of the ads.

$20x + $120y <= $6460

3x <= y

4. There are two more constraints that must be met. These relate to the fact that there
cannot be s negative numbers of advertisements. Write the two inequalities that model
these constraints:

x => 0
y => 0

5. Next, write down the function for the number of people that will be exposed to the
advertisements. This is the Objective Function for the problem and is a function of both
X and Y.

P  900x + 4500y
You now have five linear inequalities and an objective function. These together describe the
situation. This combined set of inequalities and objective function make up what is known
mathematically as a linear programming problem. Write all of the inequalities and the
objective function together below. This is typically written as a list of constraints, with the
objective function last.

Constraints:

x + y => 60
$20x + $120y <= $6460
3x <= y
x => 0
y => 0

Objective
900(x) + 4500(y) = v (Viewers)

6. To solve this problem, you will need to graph the intersection of all five inequalities
on one common XY plane. Do this on the grid below. Have the bottom left be the
origin, with the horizontal axis representing X and the vertical axis representing Y. Label
the axes with what they represent and label your lines as you graph them. Include the
scale on your graph.
7. The shaded region in the above graph is called the feasible region. Any (x, y) point in the region
corresponds to a possible number of radio and TV ads that will meet all the requirements of the
problem. However, the values that will maximize the number of people exposed to the ads will
occur at one of the vertices or corners of the region. Your region should have three corners. Find
the coordinates of these corners by solving the appropriate system of linear equations. Be sure to
show your work and label the (x, y) coordinates of the corners in your graph.

Corner 1 Corner 2 Corner 3

y = -x + 60 y = -x + 60 y = 3x

y = -1/6x + 53.8333333 y = 3x y = -1/6x + 53.8333333

-1/6x + 53.833333 = -x + 60 3x = -x + 60 3x = -1/6x + 53.8333333

5/6x = 6.1666667 4x = 60 -18x = -323

x=7 (y = 3x) x = 15 x = 17

y = 22 y = 45 y = 51

(7 , 22) (15 , 45) (17 , 51)

* Some numbers had decimals but because you can’t have a portion of an ad I removed
the decimal and put the whole number in there instead.

8. To find which number of radio and TV ads will maximize the number of people who are exposed
to the business advertisements, evaluate the objective function P for each of the vertices you
found. Show your work. One of your vertices is a point which does not have whole number
coordinates. What does this mean in the context of the problem?

900(17) + 4500(51) = 244800 people who have viewed the advertisement.

9. Write a sentence describing how many of each type of advertisement should be purchased and
what is the maximum number of people who will be exposed to the ad.

Since the owner of the company wants at least 60 total ads and 3 times as many tv ads
as radio ads they should purchase 51 ads for television with another 17 ads for radio.
With this the owner will spend his whole marketing budget without leaving a surplus or
going negative. With this the owner should have around 244800 people that have seen
or heard the ad.
 10. Reflective Writing.

Did this project change the way you think about how math can be applied to the real world? Can
you think of another situation where someone must make choices because of a budget? Write at
least one paragraph stating what ideas changed and why. If this project did not change the way
you think, write how this project gave further evidence to support your existing opinion about
applying math. Refer to specific parts of the project when you are writing your reflection.

Formulas like this are very useful in the real world because it can help you make more
informed decisions dealing with problems with multiple variables. This is a good example
because it is very common for companies to purchase advertising, and this is a very real
formula that real companies would have to use in order to make a well-informed decision. By
understanding this it helps you make the most out of your money/supply or any other object
that you are keeping track of. It also helps in making projections, so if a company is trying to
decide whether or not to increase their marketing budget they would need to go through the
pros and cons to make sure that they are using their money as efficiently as possible.

*I couldn’t get the Desmos graph to work how I wanted it to so I just decided to include
it without the graph but, the shaded part of the graph will be what is between those 3 corners.
That is the total area that would be considered acceptable.