What is the maximum number of meals Sheldon can produce in 12 hours? What is the maximum number of laundry baskets Sheldon can complete in 12 hours?
The Big Bang Theory
Assume the hours needed to cook a meal or done a basket of laundry
are different, and they are described below:
1 MEAL 1 BASKET
SHELDON 2 1
LEONARD 1/2 2
1. What is the maximum number of meals Sheldon can produce in 12 hours? What is the maximum
number of laundry baskets Sheldon can complete in 12 hours?
2. Plot in a graph: Sheldon’s
3: Plot in a graph: Leonard’s production possibility frontier.
4. What is Sheldon’s opportunity cost of one meal (in terms of baskets given up)? What is his
opportunity cost of one basket (in terms of meals given up)?
5. Does Leonard have an absolute advantage in producing both meals and baskets?
6. Who has a
7. Suppose each person has 12 hours for the two tasks in a week, and suppose both Sheldon and
Leonard each spend 6 hours on cooking and 6 hours on laundry. Consider an offer from Leonard to
Sheldon: do 3 baskets of laundry for me each week, and I’ll cook you 2 meals. Can you find a production
plan such that the offer benefits both Leonard and Sheldon? Hint: For a production plan, you need to
specify how each person divides his 12 hours between the two tasks. The offer benefits Sheldon (or
Leonard) when it results in no fewer meals and no fewer baskets for him.
8. Consider the same setup in number 7 Consider another offer from Leonard to Sheldon: do 1 basket of
laundry for me each week, and I’ll cook you 3 meals. Can you find a production plan such that the offer
benefits both Leonard and Sheldon? Explain.
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