Intermediate Microeconomics and Its Application 12th Edition by Walter Nicholson,Christopher Snyder

Exercise 1

Power Goat Lawn Company uses two sizes of mowers to cut lawns. The smaller mowers have a 22-inch deck. The larger ones combine two of the 22-inch decks in a single mower. For each size of mower, Power Goat has a different production function, given by the rows of the following table.
a. Graph the q = 40,000 square feet isoquant for the first production function. How much K and L would be used if these factors were combined without waste?
b. Answer part a for the second function.
c. How much K and L would be used without waste if half of the 40,000-square-foot lawn were cut by the method of the first production function and half by the method of the second? How much K and L would be used if one-fourth of the lawn were cut by the first method and three-fourths by the second? What does it mean to speak of fractions of K and L?
d. In Application 6.3, we showed how firms might use engineering data on production techniques to construct isoquants. How would you draw the q = 40,000 isoquant for this lawn mowing company? How would you draw the isoquant for some other level of output (say q = 80,000)?