LINEAR PROGRAMMING

Notes & Worked Samples

 Linear Programming is a branch of Mathematics for economics that deals with firms striving
to maximize profits by minimizing costs because resources are usually limited.
 This is done by combining the various sets of variables in such a way that they obey the
constraints (limits) given
 For instance,

BUTERE juice Company has two types of machines, A and B, for juice
production. Type A machine can produce litres per day while type B machine
produces litres per day. Type A machine needs operators and type B
machine needs operators. At least must be produced daily and the
total number of Operators should not exceed .

 The variables here are the number of operators and the amount of fuel because these items
can vary depending on the resources available, but even as they change, they must be subject
to some
 Limits (constraints) given, in this case litres and operators are the constraints.
 So the inequalities formed will be as follows

 The function leading to either Profit or relating to Cost is referred to as the Objective
Function

Terms in Linear Programming

 Less than
 More than/Exceeding
 More than or Equals to/ at least/Targets/has to/Minimum
 Less than or Equals to/ at most/not Exceeding /Maximum

Non Zero Limits/Obvious Inequalities




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 Steps in Optimization

Alternative 1: The Inspection Method (Testing the Corners)

 State the Objective function
 List down the corner coordinates i.e. where the borders intersect
 Test the by substituting into the Objective Function
 : Always test where two continuous lines meet, do not bother corners having an
intersection of both broken lines
 In very unique and rare cases where the point lies on a broken and a continuous line, pick the
next immediate point away from it.
 : The point cannot be at the intercepts i.e. .

Alternative 2: Using the Search Line

Steps
 If the objective function is say,
 You can simplify this to .
 Now P can obtained by finding LCM of and .
 So that
 becomes the linear eqn...Plot this & label as search line.
 You can also get P by picking any point near or within the feasible region R &
substituting in the Objective function to come up with the linear function.
 Remember even the LCM is within this R.
 Now to get the Max /Min point,
 Pick a point within the region R furthest to the search line.

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 BUTERE GIRLS LINEAR PROGRAMING SUMMARY
1. Omondi makes two types of shoes: A and B. He takes hours to make one pair of type A
and hours to make one pair of type B. He works for a maximum of hours to make x
pairs of type A and y pairs of type B. It costs him to make a pair of type A sh. to
make a pair of type B. His total cost does not exceed . He must make pairs of
type A and more than pairs of type B.
(a) Write down four inequalities representing the information above. (4 Marks)

(b) On the grid provided, draw the inequalities and shade the unwanted regions.(4 Marks)

(c) Omondi makes a profit of on each pair of type A and on each pair of type B
shoes. Use the graph provided to determine the maximum possible profit he makes.
(2 Marks)

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2. The principal of Butere Girls High school had available and decided to purchase
a number of Kiswahili and Business studies text books. A Kiswahili text book and a Business
studies text book costs and respectively. She has to buy at least Kiswahili
text books and twice the number of Business studies text books bought must be greater
than the number of Kiswahili text hooks. Take the number of Kiswahili text books and of
Business studies text books bought to be x and y respectively.
(a) Write down three inequalities satisfying the conditions in the information above.
(3 marks)

(b) On the grid provided, represent the inequalities in (a) above and shade out unwanted
regions. (3 marks)

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 (c) Determine the number of text book of each kind that must be bought for the total cost to
be minimum. Hence find the minimum cost. (4 marks)

3. A transporter targets (wishes) to transfer bags of sugar to a go down. He has 2 types

of Lorries to use, FTR and a canter, with capacities of bags and bags respectively.
The canter has to make at least twice as many trips as the FTR makes. The total number of
trips made by both Lorries must not be more than , and the canter has to make more than
10 trips. If x represents the trips made by FTR and y the trips made by the canter.
(a) Write down the inequalities to represent the above information. (4 Marks)

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(b) Graph the inequalities above on the grid provided. (4 Marks)

(c) If the FTR uses per fuel per trip while the canter uses per trip, use a
search line to determine the maximum possible amount that can be spent on fuelling the
Lorries. (2 Marks)

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4. A farmer has acres of land on which he plans to plant maize or beans. Each acre of maize
requires man and each acre of beans requires men. The farmer intends to use a
minimum of men available and he must plant at least acres of maize. The profit on
maize is per acre and on beans is per acre. If he plants x acres of
maize and y acres of beans:
(a) Write down three inequalities in x and y to describe this information. (3 Marks)

(b) Represent these inequalities graphically (3 Marks)

(c) Use your graph to determine the number of acres for each crop which will give maximum
profit and hence find the maximum profit. (4 Marks)

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5. At Juma’s farm, a cow takes at least units of vitamin A and not less than units of
vitamin B, Vitamin A and B are available in two types of feeds, X and Y. Type X feeds
contains units per kg of Vitamin A and units per kg of vitamin B while type Y feeds
contains units per kg of Vitamin A and units of vitamin B. Taking x and y to be the
number of Kgs of feed x and y respectively taken by the cow per day.
(a) Form all the inequalities that represent the above information. (4 Marks)

(b) Show the region described by the all inequalities in (a) above graphically. (4 Marks)

(c) Given that 1kg of costs and of y costs , use your graph in (b) above to
determine the least cost of maintaining a cow at Juma’s farm. (2 Marks)

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6. Damian bakes two types of cakes, queen cakes and marble cakes. Each week he bakes x
queen cakes and y marble cakes .Queen cakes would take him to bake while marble
cakes . He has to take not more than to bake both queen cakes
and marble cakes would take him not less than to make. The number of
queen cakes is always thrice more than the number of marble cakes. He makes a profit of
on each queen cake and on each marble cake.
(a) Form all the inequalities that represent the above information. (4 Marks)

(b) Draw a graph to represent the above information on the grid provided. (4 Marks)

(c) From the graph, determine how many cakes of each type he should make to maximize his
weekly profit. (2 Marks)

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7. A road contractor has to transport tonnes of hardcore. He will use two types of Lorries
type A and type B. He has type A lorries and type B lories. The capacity of each type A
lorry is tonnes while that of type B is tonnes. All type A lorries must each make the
same number of trips; similarly all type B lorries must each make the same number of trips.
The number of trips made by each type B lorry should be less than twice those made by each
type A lorry. Each type A lorry must not make more than trips.
(a) Taking x to represent the number of trips made by each type A lorry and y to represent
the number of trips made by each type B lorry, form all the inequalities in x and y, to
represent this information (3 marks)

(b) On the grid provided, draw all the inequalities and shade the unwanted region. Take 1 cm
to represent unit on each of the axes. (4 marks)

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 (c) The cost of operating each type A lorry is per trip while that of operating each
type B lorry is per trip. Determine the number of trips each type of lorry
should make in in order to minimize the cost of transporting the hardcore to.
Hence calculate the minimum cost. (3 marks)

8. A farmer has hectares of land on which he can grow maize and beans only. In a year he
grows maize on more land than beans. It costs him to grow maize per hectare and
to grow beans per hectare. He is prepared to spend at most per year to
grow the crops. He makes a profit of from one hectare of maize and from
one hectare of beans.
(a) Form all the inequalities that represent the above information. (4 Marks)

(b) Show the region described by the all inequalities in (a) above graphically. (4 Marks)

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 (c) Find the maximum profit he can make from the crops in a year. (2 Marks)

9. A manufacture of jam has g of strawberry syrup and of mango syrup for

making two types of jam, grade A and B. Each types is made by mixing strawberry and
mango syrups as follows:
Grade A: strawberry and mango
Grade B: strawberry and mango
The jam is sold in gram jars. The selling prices are as follows:
Grade A: per jar
Grade B: per jar.
(a) Form inequalities to represent the given information (3 marks)

( )

( )

( )

( )

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(b) (i) On the grid provided draw the inequalities ( 3 marks)

(ii) From your, graph, determine the number of jars of each grade the manufacturer
should produce to maximize his profit. (1 mark)

(iii)Calculate the total amount of money realized if all the jars are sold.(1 mark)

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10. In an inter school mathematics contest, schools can register teams in junior and senior
categories. Information on number of students and the participation fee per team in each
category is given in the table below

The organisation committee projected to register x junior teams and y senior teams
(a) For the contest to take place, the following conditions must be satisfied:-
(i) At least two junior teams must be registered
(ii) The number of senior teams must be more than half the number of junior teams
(iii) The total number of participating students from the two categories must not
exceed
(iv) The total amount of money raised from the participation fees must be more than

Write down the inequalities in x and y that satisfy the above conditions (4 marks)
(b) Represent the inequalities in (a) above on the grid provided. (4 marks)
(c) The organizing committee is expected to make a profit of for every junior team
and for every senior team that participated.

Determine the number of teams of each category that should be registered in order to maximize
the profit. (2 marks)

11. An SGR train operates between two towns .The train pulls x coaches on First class and y
coaches on Economy class. Each first class can hold passengers while each economy
class can hold passengers.
(a) Write down the inequalities that express the following conditions for a trip made by the
train where the:-
(i) Total number of coaches used was less than
(ii) Train was pulling at least one first class coach
(iii) Number of economy class coaches was more than the number of first class
coaches
(iv) Total number of passengers exceeded (4 marks)

(b) Represent he inequalities in (a) above on the grid provided. (4 marks)

(c) The coaches for the trip were fully booked. Each first class ticket costs while
each Economy class ticket costs . Determine the maximum possible amount
realized from the sale of tickets for the trip. (2 marks)

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12. A carpenter takes 4 hours to make a stool and 6 hours to make chair. It takes the carpenter
and at least hours to make x stools and y chairs. The labour cost should not exceed
Ksh.4800 the carpenter must make a least 16 stools and more than 10 chairs.
(a) Write down inequalities to represent the above information. (3 marks)

(b) Draw the inequality in (a) above on a grid. (4 marks)

(c) The carpenter makes a profit of on a stool and on a chair. Use the
graph to determine the maximum profit the carpenter can make. Use the search
line . (3 marks)

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