Edexcel FD1 2024 June — Question 5

Exam BoardEdexcel
ModuleFD1 (Further Decision 1)
Year2024
SessionJune
TopicThe Simplex Algorithm

5. Two friends, Anaira and Tommi, play a game involving two positive numbers \(x\) and \(y\) Anaira gives Tommi the following clues to see if he can correctly determine the value of \(x\) and the value of \(y\)
  • \(x\) is greater than \(y\) and the difference between the two is at least 100
  • \(x\) is at most 5 times as large as \(y\)
  • the sum of \(2 x\) and \(3 y\) is at least 350
  • the sum of \(x\) and \(y\) is as small as possible
Tommi decides to solve this problem by using the big-M method.
  1. Set up an initial tableau for solving this problem using the big-M method. As part of your solution, you must show
    • how the constraints were made into equations using one slack variable, exactly two surplus variables and exactly two artificial variables
    • how the objective function was formed
    The big-M method is applied until the tableau containing the optimal solution to the problem is found. One row of this final tableau is as follows.
    b.v.\(x\)\(y\)\(s _ { 1 }\)\(S _ { 2 }\)\(\mathrm { S } _ { 3 }\)\(a _ { 1 }\)\(a _ { 2 }\)Value
    \(x\)10\(- \frac { 3 } { 5 }\)0\(- \frac { 1 } { 5 }\)\(\frac { 3 } { 5 }\)\(\frac { 1 } { 5 }\)130
    1. State the value of \(x\)
    2. Hence deduce the value of \(y\), making your reasoning clear.