Power Goat Lawn Company uses two sizes of mowers to cut lawns. The smaller mowers have a 24- inch blade and are used on lawns with many trees and obstacles. The larger mowers are exactly twice as big as the smaller mowers and are used on open lawns where maneuverability is not so difficult. The two production functions available to Power Goat are:

a. Graph the q = 40,000 square feet is oquant 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 three fourths of the lawn were cut by the first method and one-fourth 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 is oquants. How would you draw the q = 40,000 is oquant for this lawn mowing company? How would you draw the is oquant for some other level of output (say q =80,000)?

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OUTPUT PER CAPITAL INPUT HOUR (SQUARE (NO. OF 24 MOWERS) LABOR INPUT FEET) Large mowers 8,000 Small mowers 5,000