Ryan Conners Meadows or Malls Portfolio 1

The Meadows or Malls Unit focused on linear programming, specifically with

a 6 variable problem. The unit problem is to decide how much land (donated from
three different sources) should be allocated towards recreation, and how much of it
should go towards development. The given problem was expressed through systems
of linear inequalities, and so the solution must be derived through linear
programming. Wed started linear programming problems n the IMP 2 unit
Cookies. But with the addition of more variables, it becomes much trickier to solve.
Using knowledge from Cookies, we know that the intersections of various
constraints are going to be the most efficient uses of materials (land in this case).
Well to find intersections of our constraints that meet all constraints, weve got to
lay out the constraints.
Potential Land Allocations for
Unit Problem
Cost = 50Gr + 500Gd + 200Ar + 2000Ad + 100Mr + 1000Md
Constraints:
1. Gr + Gd = 300 (300 acres donated by Mr. Goodfellow)
2. Ar + Ad = 100 (100 acres from former Army base)
3. Mr + Md = 150 (150 acres of former mining land)
4. Gc + Ad + Md >= 300 (at least 300 acres for development)
5. Ar + Mr <= 200 (at most 200 acres of army and mining land for recreation)
6. Ar + Gd = 100 (army land for recreation and land from Mr. G for dev. must
equal 100 acres)
7. Gr >= 0 (can't have negative amount of land)
8. Ar >= 0 (can't have negative amount of land)
9. Mr >= 0 (can't have negative amount of land)
10. Gd >= 0 (can't have negative amount of land)
11. Ad >= 0 (can't have negative amount of land)
12. Md >= 0 (can't have negative amount of land)

Variables Explained
Gr - Mr. Gs Land to be used for recreation.
Gd - Mr. Gs Land to be used for development.
Mr - Mining Land for recreation.
Md - Mining Land for development.
Ar - Army Base Land for recreation.
Ryan Conners Meadows or Malls Portfolio 2

Ad - Army Base Land for development.

Now that weve defined our variables and our constraints, we can begin to
solve the problem. However we took this opportunity to explore the feasible regions
of more than 2 variable linear inequality problems. When looking at three variables,
we quickly realized wed need an x axis, so our graph would have to be in 3-D, as
opposed to an x and y graph you can sketch quickly on your own graph paper, this
made a few people hesitant, and unnerved several people when attempting to draw
a model of such a graph. So what does this mean for the unit problem? Well our
graph of a 3 variable system of equations brought us to the third dimension, so
shouldnt our six variable unit problem bring us all the way to the sixth dimension??
Why yes it would, astute question asker. So we cant graph the unit problem. We
cant simply graph it, find the corner points, approximate, then work from there to
get an exact answer, as we could have (and some people may have) done in
Cookies. No. This would be just a bit more difficult.
So since there are six variables, we need to find the corner points (corner
being more of a third dimension term, but yknow, where several constraints equal
each other) we began construction on a list of all 6-constraint combinations that
werent logically eliminated. Such as the combo of 7-8-9-10-11-12, as those are all
the constraints stating that their given variable mustnt be negative, and so their
corner point in (0,0,0,0,0,0), which results in no cost, and no land used. Thats not
what we want. We need to find the corner point resulting in all land used, and the
least money spent to do so. Ive done the courtesy of putting all logical constraints
together here:
Combinations Gr Ar Mr Gd Ad Md COST
(thousands)
1-2-3-4-5-6 50 -150 350 250 250 -200 Doesnt
meet all
constraints
1-2-3-4-6-8 200 0 50 100 100 100 365
1-2-3-4-6-9 225 25 0 75 75 150 353.75
1-2-3-4-6-12 150 -50 150 150 150 0 Doesnt
meet all
Ryan Conners Meadows or Malls Portfolio 3

constraints
1-2-3-5-6-8 200 0 200 100 100 -50 Doesnt
meet all
constraints
1-2-3-5-6-9 00 200 0 -100 -100 150 Doesnt
meet all
constraints
1-2-3-5-6-12 250 50 150 50 50 0 Doesnt
meet all
constraints
1-2-3-6-8-9 200 0 0 100 100 150 410
1-2-3-6-8-12 200 0 150 100 100 0 Doesnt
meet all
constraints
1-2-3-4-9-12 Not
Solvable


So the two combinations highlighted in red are valid solutions, that meet all
the constraints, and so would be in whatever feasible region these constraints
would create in the sixth dimension, but the solution in blue is the one that requires
the lowest cost, and is therefore the citys best solution for how they use their land.
In conclusion, the cheapest use of the citys new land is to use 225 acres of
Mr. Gs land for recreation, 75 acres of his land for development, 25 acres of the
army base for recreation, 75 acres of the army base for development, and all 150
acres of the mining land for development. This results in the least money spent by
the city to use the land ($353,750.00), and all the constraints set by the people on
the use of the land are met.

Personal Growth
In the Meadows or Malls unit, I further developed my use of matrices (not
explained in the portfolio because we touched on it lightly and very briefly) and
linear programming to solve systems of linear inequalities. I also thoroughly
Ryan Conners Meadows or Malls Portfolio 4

enjoyed our class discussion on dimensions greater than that of our normal 2-D
graphs of x and y, and even more than x, y, and z graphs. It gave me a new
perspective on just how complicated linear programming could really get, and how
a three dimensional graph would look, especially how the graphs of inequalities
would become planes rather than just simple lines. It made me wonder about the
fourth dimension a bit, but I fear we wont get to experiment with the fourth
dimension any time soon. In this unit, we brought in and expanded upon knowledge
from the Cookies unit, and I think this unit really helped me to be able to solve
linear programming problems much easier.