A Computer Start-Up Named Pear Is Considering Entering the U

question 57

Essay

A computer start-up named Pear is considering entering the U.S.market with what they believe to be a smaller and faster computer than some of the existing products on the market.They want to get a feel for whether or not customers would be willing to switch from some of the existing bigger brands to consider their product.They want to collect a reasonable sample from across the U.S.representative of all age brackets.They have split the United States into 2 regions: East and West.They want at least 65% of their sample to cover the East and no fewer than 25% of the West.They also have divided the age groups into 3 categories: 18-35,36-69,and 70 and up.They want at least 50% of their sample to be between 18-35 and at least 40% to be between 36-69.The costs per person surveyed is given in the table below: Assume that at least 1,000 people are to be surveyed.The problem is for Pear Company to decide how many people to survey from each age bracket within each region in order to minimize costs while meeting requirements.Formulate this problem as a linear program.

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Definitions:

RFLP

Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism, a technique in molecular biology used to analyze the length of DNA fragments resulting from restriction enzyme cutting, which can vary among individuals.

Kary Mullis

An American biochemist known for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, a method used to amplify DNA.

Francis Crick

A British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, known for co-discovering the structure of DNA.

Southern Blotting

Southern blotting is a molecular biology technique used to detect specific DNA sequences within a DNA sample by transferring DNA from a gel to a membrane and then probing it with a DNA probe.